Two Bucks County men are behind bars after police say they raped a woman at gunpoint early Saturday morning.
Police arrested 21-year-old Kareem Evans and 18-year-old Qudre McMillan, both of Bristol, for sexual assaulting a woman in an apartment on the 200 block of Cedar Street, Bristol Borough around 4:30 a.m., according to authorities.
The victim told police she was visiting Bristol from Philadelphia to meet a man, who identified himself as "Kareem," when they spoke on the phone, the Bucks County Courier Times reports.
Once the two met, the suspect walked her to the Cedar Street apartment, where the second suspect greeted her with a rifle and ordered her to do as they said, according to police.
Both men allegedly demanded she perform sex acts and also choked and pushed her during the attack, according to authorities.
Evans and McMillan face multiple charges including rape, terroristic threats and other related offenses, court records show.
Bail has been set at 10 percent of $5 million for both men, according to court records.
Police are searching for a 14-year-old girl who was reported missing Saturday.
Tatiana Coles was reported missing Saturday from the 1200 block of Liberty Street, Camden, according to authorities. The girl has never before been reported missing.
Police describe Coles as 4-feet 9-inches tall, weighing aproximately 90 pounds, with brown eyes and brown shoulder-length hair.
She was last seen wearing a black or gray-colored tank top and red gym shorts, according to authorities.
Anyone with information on Coles' whereabouts is asked to contact the Camden County Police Department tip line at 856-757-7042.
A husband and father of two is fighting for his life after he was struck by a stray bullet in front of his family while driving in North Philadelphia. The man is just one of the four people who were struck by a group of gunmen who police say only had one intended target.
Investigators say the ordeal began around 11:45 p.m. Saturday when two men got into an argument on the 4700 block of Tampa Street. One man then allegedly called for someone to "take care of business," according to investigators. That's when, police say, a group of men pulled up in a large silver Chrysler.
"A bunch of guys get out of the car and begin shooting at the victim who is hit in the leg," said Philadelphia Police Captain George Fuchs.
The intended target, a 23-year-old man, was struck twice, once in each leg. He managed to stumble inside a pizza shop at the corner of Wyoming and Whitaker.
As the shooting occurred, police say two cars traveling down Whitaker unknowingly drove into the gunfire.
"Two cars minding their business on Whitaker and they get struck by gunfire for no reason," Captain Fuchs said. "These guys are firing wildly down the alleyway and couldn't care less who they were going to hit."
One of the drivers, a 25-year-old father of two, was struck in the head. Police say the victim's wife, 6-month-old baby and 6-year-old child were all inside the car at the time of the shooting.
In the second car, a bullet struck a 35-year-old driver as well as a 44-year-old passenger.
"One bullet went through the car window, the one victim's neck and out to the other passenger," Captain Fuchs said.
The 25-year-old father was taken to Temple University Hospital where he is currently in extremely critical condition.
The 35-year-old driver and 44-year-old passenger were also taken to Temple where they are both in stable condition.
The 23-year-old man was taken to Einstein Hospital where he is in stable condition but also reportedly not cooperating with police.
Police say the suspects fled in a large silver Chrysler. They have not yet released a description of the suspects but are currently looking at surveillance video.
"We do have prior surveillance in the vicinity of the shooting," Captain Fuchs said. "Our detectives are all over it, trying to find if the cameras captured the actual shooters."
Police interviewed four witnesses and questioned two men. No charges have been filed however.
If you have any information on this incident, please call Philadelphia Police.
A viewing and funeral will be held Sunday and Monday for a Northeast Philadelphia mother of two who was found dead at a Philadelphia Park
Constance "Connie" Murray, 46, was found dead Tuesday morning in Pennypack Park after she was strangled. Murray's husband, 48-year-old Christopher Murray, confessed to murdering her, according to police.
A memorial service for Murray will be held Sunday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at John F. Givnish Funeral Home on 10975 Academy Road in Philadelphia. A viewing and funeral will be held at the same location on Monday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Crispen Gardens A.A., P.O. Box 39100, Philadelphia Pa. 19136 or the Winchester Swim Club 8814 Ashton Road, Philadelphia, Pa. 19136.
You can also visit the life celebration website to share your memories.
Two local little league baseball teams will square off Sunday night in Connecticut for a major matchup.
The Taney Dragons of Philadelphia will face Delaware’s Newark National team in Bristol starting at 6 p.m. in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament final. The winner will advance to Williamsport, Pa. for the Little League World Series.
The Taney Dragons’ star pitcher, Mo’ne Davis, has gotten plenty of attention and was featured on the Today Show Sunday morning. The 13-year-old girl, who throws a 70 mph fast ball, says the initially tried to play softball when she was younger but decided to play with the boys and switch to baseball. Davis says her skills quickly earned her the respect of her male peers.
“I end up striking them out and I look at my teammates and they’re laughing,” Davis said. “So I just laugh with them.”
Davis says her baseball dreams won’t end at the LLWS.
“I’ll probably either be the first female in the MLB or in the NBA,” Davis said.
Davis’ coach Alex Rice praises her poise and levelheadedness though he also says he can’t resist teasing her every now and then.
“When she hits a homerun we like to say that she hits like a girl,” Rice said.
Davis says she’s not a fan of the extra attention but does hope she can serve as an inspiration to other girls.
“Don’t let anyone stop you from doing what you like,” Davis said. “Just keep dreaming and go for it.”
A major construction project will begin tonight on I-476 in Delaware and Montgomery Counties. During the project, crews will repair and resurface deteriorated areas of Interstate 476 in Haverford and Radnor Townships in Delaware County as well as in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County. It’s one of many projects in our area funded by the state’s new transportation plan.
Over the next two months, PennDOT crews will mill and pave I-476’s deteriorated pavements at the following locations:
Construction on those sections is expected to be completed by late September. Drivers will face weeknight lane closures from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and should expect slowdowns.
Crews will begin work tonight through Thursday, August 14, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on I—476 southbound between I-76 and Route 30(Lancaster Avenue) and northbound I-476 between Route 3(West Chester Pike) and Montgomery Avenue.
You can check on the conditions of I-476 and other major roadways in our area by visiting the 511PA website. You can also visit the PennDOT website.
The weather may be lovely for most of the region but there’s still a severe weather threat for parts of South Jersey and Delaware Sunday night. Minor tidal flooding is anticipated and road closures are possible along the entire Jersey Shore and Delaware shoreline.
A coastal flood advisory will be in effect from 7 p.m. to midnight for Sussex County, Middlesex County, Monmouth County, Ocean County, Atlantic County, Cape May County and parts of Burlington County.
According to the National Weather Service, minor tidal flooding is likely. A high tide will occur at the Raritan Bay around 8 p.m. and will work its way into the Delaware Bay over the course of a few hours. Officials say there will be flooding along roadways prone to tidal flooding during this time.
Drivers are advised to not leave their vehicles in areas prone to tidal flooding and to not drive through flood waters.
Police are investigating a double murder in South Philadelphia.
Police tell NBC10 two people were found dead Sunday morning inside a home on the 2400 block of S. Hutchinson Street.
Law enforcement sources also told NBC10 that witnesses heard gunshots and spotted two men running from the home. They tried to run into a nearby vehicle but fled on foot after they were unable to start it, according to the witnesses.
This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.
A Northeast Philadelphia man has been charged with murder after he allegedly strangled his wife and left her body at a local park.
Police say Christopher Murray, 48, confessed to killing his wife, 46-year-old Constance "Connie" Murray, Monday night at Pennypack Park following an argument. According to investigators, there were ongoing domestic issues between the husband and wife which culminated in Monday's violent incident.
Investigators say Connie Murray left her Tolbut Street home Monday to go for a walk. While she was walking, Christopher Murray allegedly followed her while driving a silver Taurus. He pulled up beside her on Willets Road and the two began to argue, according to police.
"She sticks her head in the car, says something and she goes back on her walk," said Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Philip Riehl.
Police say Christopher Murray continued to follow her and got out of his vehicle on Holme Avenue around 9:30 p.m. The husband then met his wife at a bench area at the park where another argument ensued.
"She went up there voluntarily to talk to him about whatever was going on and things went bad," Riehl said.
According to law enforcement sources, Connie Murray accused her husband of infidelity, which he denied. Sources say she went to the park's snack stand to meet her daughter where she was met by her husband who wanted to discuss the issue further. According to sources, Christopher Murray told police his wife began to slap him which caused him to snap.
Christopher Murray allegedly strangled his wife and then left her body at the bench area near the Crispin Rec Center. Investigators say he then contacted police around 2 a.m. and reported that his wife was missing. A woman walking her dog later found her body Tuesday around 6 a.m.
After receiving several neighborhood tips and looking at surveillance video allegedly showing Christopher Murray driving his silver Taurus, police identified him as a suspect. He was taken in for questioning Saturday night.
"State Trooper David Lang came in and helped us and administered a lie detector test," Riehl said. "After failing the lie detector test, Murray confessed to strangling his wife in the park next to the two benches where she was found."
Police also say they recovered Connie Murray's headphones and cellphone in a sewer at Solly Avenue. They believe Christopher Murray took the items and disposed of them there.
A preliminary arraignment took place Sunday afternoon, the same day as a planned memorial service for his wife. A preliminary hearing has been set for Aug. 27 and bail has been denied.
According to law enforcement sources, Christopher and Connie had known each other since they were between the ages of eight and nine.
A funeral will be held for Connie Murray on Monday.
“One day, electronic mail, like Edison’s bulb, may also permeate and pervade our daily lives… Volumes of written work, for example, shall become obsolete.”
These words were part of a scholarship essay written back in 1981 but they could not be truer today.
The author of the essay was Shiva Ayyadurai, a 14-year-old kid living in New Jersey at the time. He wasn’t just any kid though. Ayyadurai was the kid who invented email.
Born in India, Ayyadurai and his parents came over to the United States and settled in Patterson, New Jersey in 1970. “They were not your typical immigrants.” Ayyadurai said. His mom was a mathematician and his dad worked as a chemical engineer.
“They came for adventure.”
It’s not surprising that the kid that wrote the 50,000 lines of code to create email would have parents with a background in science and technology. However, the person he looked up to the most was his grandmother.
Visiting his grandparents back in India he recalls being captivated by his grandmother’s ability to heal people using alternative medicine.
“As a kid I was fascinated and always wanted to be a healer like this.” Dr. Ayyadurai, now 50 explained that his grandmother was a Shawman and could look at someone’s face and know what was going on inside their body.
Although computer programming isn’t the same field as medicine, Ayyadurai found that like his grandmother’s skill for studying facial expressions, he too had a knack for patterns that would lead him down the road of coding.
Ayyadurai was at the top of his class at Livingston high school in Newark and excelled at math. In high school “people try to put you in boxes,” but Ayyadurai was both academic and athletic.
Ayyadurai was one of 40 students accepted to a program at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of NYU that would teach him 8 different programming languages. Later he would use this knowledge to create the code for email with fortran language.
Soon after that Ayyadurai started a co-op of sorts at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). In the morning he would begin his day at Livingston high and then travel 30 miles to work at a medical university.
Surrounded by medical professionals, Ayyadurai was finally working in a field that he was passionate about. However, Dr. Leslie Michelson, a physicist there had other plans for the young colleague.
Offices throughout the country including UMDNJ’s 3 campuses were using the inter-office mail system to communicate with each other. This meant that secretaries were typing up memos using typewriters and then manually placing the letters into tubes to be sent through to people within the same office.
Since Ayyadurai’s knowledge of computer coding, Michelson gave him the task of making an electronic version of the system.
This wasn’t like some teacher giving a student a school project. Michelson never once treated Ayyadurai as a child.
“I will treat you the same as everyone,” Ayyadurai recalls of Michelson’s instructions.
Ayyadurai set off to study the inter-office mail system as it were so he could create the best possible electronic version.
The inbox and outbox of email were real life bins that memorandums would be placed in and the paper clip icon someone has to click to attach a file was no more than a real paperclip to hold the papers together.
Ayyadurai led a seminar for 200 doctors at UMDNJ’s campus to explain his invention. He remembers some being skeptical of the new email system and content with the laborious manual system that was in place. Luckily, innovation won over and email was invented in 1978, and was later copyrighted on August 30, 1982.
The internet was just in the beginning stages at that time but that was fine. No one had to dial up or sign into a Wi-Fi network because an internet connection was not required for this type of email.
Although the coding was complicated Ayyadurai understood that the application he would create needed to be easy to use.
“Email for me and you.”
Ayyadurai was able to make his mark on the world because people older than him didn’t underestimate him.
Teens today are likewise on the pulse of new technology. Many have invented smartphone apps like Alissa Chavez from New Mexico who last month invented a phone alarm to prevent parents from leaving kids in hot cars.
Philo Farnsworth was another kid inventor. At just 14 the boy from Idaho invented television back in 1922. “A lot of great innovation is coming out of Newark...Idaho. That’s what the American spirit is all about.”
To continue this spirit of innovation Ayyadurai launched Innovation Programs, a grant program that supports youth initiative.
This year’s application is open to teenagers ages 14-18 that have an innovative idea or concept. Six students from the United States as well as six international students will be selected.
Applications are being accepted until Monday August 18 and winners will be announced on the anniversary of “email” on August 30.
To think that Ayyadurai graduated created email before he ever graduated from MIT, before he even graduated from high school is encouragement enough for teens to apply and carry on the spirit of innovation.
Bethlehem Police have arrested a teen they believe shot two people near a popular music festival last week.
Police identified 17-year-old Julius Jose Cortijo as the shooter responsible for wounding two people August 5 near the intersection of West Garrison and Guetter streets -- a short distance from the venue of Musikfest.
Cortijo was arraigned before Northampton County Duty Judge Jackie Taschner on Sunday and charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, firearm charges and related charges. The 17-year-old was charged as an adult.
Police say Cortijo opened fire near a large crowd that had gathered around 11 p.m. -- only moments after police began to disperse the group, according to officials.
Bullets struck two men, wounding one in his right hip and the other in his groin, according to authorities.
The suspect is affiliated with an Allentown-based sect of the "Bloods" street gang and is considered armed and dangerous, according to investigators.
Cortijo's last known address was on the 200 block of South 13th Street, Allentown, officials said.
Musikfest, which was founded in 1984, is the nation's largest non-gated free music festival, according to event organizers.
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Vineland.
The incident occurred around 9 p.m. Sunday in the 100 block of West Landis Avenue.
The victim is a middle-aged male.
Police are looking for a sport utility vehicle or pickup truck that fled the scene.The specific type of vehicle is not known at this time, but authorities are interviewing witnesses.
A man has died after trying to control a brush fire in Robeson Township, Berks County Sunday afternoon.
George Fritz Bernhard was found dead as the fire department was called to extinguish a reported brush fire at 730 Rock Hollow Road at 1 p.m.
The fire was started as a controlled burn, but the 88-year-old victim succumbed to natural causes while trying to regain control of the fire, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.
Approximately 1-acre of ground was damaged by the fire, which was started to burn a pile of tree stumps.
A robber wound up allegedly shooting himself in the foot after police say he pulled a gun on his victim and demanded her smartphone.
The strange incident played out around 11 p.m. along the 1700 block of Guilford Street in Northeast Philadelphia -- that’s a short distance from Northeast High School.
Philadelphia Police said that the armed suspect approached the woman and tried to take her iPhone.
During the attempted robbery the suspect then somehow shot himself in the foot, according to investigators.
The suspect wound up in Aria Health-Torresdale Campus hospital in stable condition. The victim didn’t suffer any injuries, said investigators.
Police didn’t immediately identify the suspect.
A crash along one of Philadelphia’s major thoroughfares left five people hospitalized early Monday.
The wreck at the Roosevelt Boulevard and 7th Street in the Feltonville section of the city closed the southbound inner lanes for hours as crews worked to upright a silver car that wound up on its roof. Another car was also involved.
Investigators on the scene said that five people were transported to area hospitals with what appeared to be minor injuries.
The outer lane remained open as accident investigators worked to figure out a cause of the wreck.
