One of the two severely emaciated puppies found dumped near a baseball field in a New Jersey park Monday has died, officials tell NBC 4 New York.
The 6-month-old male pit bull mix and his sister were found by a jogger at East Side Park in Paterson early Monday morning. The pups, named Bugsy and Bunny by animal hospital staff, barely weighed 14 pounds when they should have clocked in at a healthy 50, according to officials.
When officers arrived at the park, Bunny was standing over Bugsy, apparently trying to comfort and protect him.
Bugsy could not stand, and hospital staff were treating him Monday and trying to help him recover before finding him and his sister a new home. But on Tuesday, Paterson animal control said the puppy had died.
Bunny is continuing her recuperation, officials said.
Veterinarian Paul Sedlacek of the Animal Clinic of Morris Plains told NBC 4 New York Monday: "This is an extreme, extreme case of neglect."
Animal control officials said it appears the young dogs had been starved for months and were likely days from death when they were dumped near the baseball fields.
"We see dogs running on the streets for a period of time that don't look this skinny," said Sedlacek. "I'm concerned, were they in someone's possession and not being fed before they were released?"
A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to who abused them.
"There's no such thing as bad animals in the world. There's bad people that allow it to happen," said John DeCando of Paterson Animal Control. "This has got to stop."
EveryBlock -- the free online service and mobile application that curates content at the neighborhood level -- has returned to Philadelphia.
After about six years of operation in what grew to 19 cities across the country, EveryBlock was shut down in 2013 by its owner NBC News. Comcast has since taken the product under its arms, revamped it, and is re-launching it in Philadelphia Tuesday.
The new, improved version of EveryBlock – although its looks haven’t changed – allows users to now receive information from about 550 Philadelphia-based sources, said Paul Wright, director of local media development at Comcast.
Read more about EveryBlock's relaunch on PBJ.Com.
A Philadelphia Police sergeant who allegedly hid his identity while turning over a stolen gun has filed a brutality lawsuit against his fellow officers.
Sgt. Brandon Ruff, who served in the 16th District, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Philadelphia Police Department for false arrest and other alleged civil rights violations, according to a federal court filing.
NBC10.com told you exclusively two weeks ago about how Ruff is under investigation by the force's Internal Affairs division for an incident involving the turning in of handguns.
Earlier this month, Ruff, in plain clothes and not identifying himself as an officer, walked into the 35th District in North Philadelphia carrying a bag containing three guns. He told NBC10.com that a community member, in a different part of the city, needed help getting them to authorities. That person was running an illegal gun buy back program to get guns out of his neighborhood, According to the officer.
Ruff said he was trying to anonymously turn over the weapons and was detained when he tried to leave. He says officers grabbed him, threatened to tase him and treated him unjustly.
Law enforcement sources tell NBC10.com that ballistics showed one of the guns was reported stolen during a past burglary. The other two guns are said to be undergoing testing to find out where they came from.
Philadelphia Police say they reserve the right to question people turning in guns to police districts.
NBC10 investigative reporter Harry Hairston contributed to this report.
Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
A woman exiting a bus was struck and killed Wednesday morning along Route 202 in Wilmington, Del. -- not far from Widener University's satellite campus.
Police say 29-year-old Princess Ibekaku had just gotten off a DART bus and was trying to cross the busy roadway near Rocky Run Parkway around 8:10 a.m. when she was hit by a Dodge Avenger driven by Taleah Everett, 24.
Ibekaku was rushed to Christiana Hospital Trauma Center where she was pronounced dead.
According to a preliminary investigation, the victim was to cross the street within a crosswalk, but failed to see that on-coming traffic had the right of way at the time.
No charges are expected to be filed.
The northbound lanes of the roadway -- also known as Concord Pike -- were closed for more than two hours as authorities investigated. Drivers heading south on Route 202 also experienced delays.
On Sept. 2, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook (the restaurateurs behind Zahav and Federal Donuts) will debut their newest venture, restaurant Abe Fisher on 1623 Sansom St.
The restaurant's opening comes on the heel of the recently launched Dizengoff, the 600-square-foot hummus restaurant right next door on 1625 Sansom St.
The 1,500-square-foot Abe Fisher will have a 50-seat dining room, a 10-seat full-service bar and kitchen counter seats with a view of the kitchen that will be available every night for walk-in guests.
Abe Fisher will be the "inverse" of Zahav, Cook told me earlier, and will offer food of the Jewish diaspora.
To read more about Abe Fisher's cuisine, go to PBJ.Com.
A soaking wet man, bound and suffering from stab wounds, crawled from Philadelphia's Schuylkill River after he and two other men were abducted, attacked, robbed and dumped into the water, police said.
The other two victims never made it out of the river.
Philadelphia Police rushed to the water along Kelly Drive near Hunting Park Avenue in Fairmount Park around 4 a.m. Wednesday after someone called 911 to report a partially-dressed injured man screaming along the roadway.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they found the man, identified by NBC10 sources as 20-year-old Thanh Voong, soaking wet and suffering from multiple stab wounds to his stomach and legs. His arms and legs were partially bound and he had duct tape on his face.
Police rushed Voong to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he underwent surgery for seven stab wounds while listed in stable condition, according to officials.
Investigators found two bodies submerged in the water -- both bound with tape and tied or tethered to some sort of anchor.
Police using flashlights taped off an area along the river and searched for clues about what happened. Police dive teams finally recovered the bodies, which could be seen in about 5 to 10 feet of water, around 8:30 a.m.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said the victim told investigators that four or five men abducted him near 62nd Street and Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philly and threw him into the back of van around 1 a.m.
"While in the back of the van he was blindfold, he was stabbed numerous times, he was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money," said Small. "He says that while in the back of the van he then realized that there were two other males in the back of the van... they were duct taped and they appeared to have been stabbed numerous times."
Voong was unsure whether the two men with him in the vehicle were alive or dead, according to investigators.
Detectives are reviewing surveillance video that captured the area near where the abduction took place in hopes of finding the van and the suspects.
Voong somehow climbed out of the water, said Small.
An initial investigation showed that the men were dragged across the concrete and grass before being dumped in the river, according to police on the scene.
Small said that robbery was the motive.
Police responded to the victim's Northern Liberties home where they found blood. Investigators planned to get a search warrant for the home.
The Delaware River Waterfront Corp. has extended the Spruce Street Harbor Park’s season through Sept. 28, because of the overwhelming response it’s received during its eight-week run.
"We thought the park would be popular, but had no idea just how popular it would be," said Thomas Corcoran, president of the DRWC.
An estimated 35,000 people per week came out to visit the park, with almost double the numbers on the Fourth of July weekend.
Read more about the pop-up park on PBJ.Com.
A teenage boy was pronounced dead Wednesday morning -- hours after lifeguards pulled him from the Atlantic Ocean late Tuesday afternoon.
The 17-year-old boy -- identified as Sarnad Rizvi of South Plainfield, Middlesex County -- was reported missing from the Sandy Hook beach around 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to Daphne Yun, a spokeswoman for Gateway National Park Service.
Rizvi was in the water between beaches C and D -- an area that was not monitored by lifeguards, Yun said.
Lifeguards pulled the boy from the Atlantic Ocean within 30 minutes of when they were notified he was missing, she added.
They tried to resuscitate him at the beach before he was transported to the Monmouth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead early Wednesday morning.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
The third edition of the “Budweiser Made in America” Festival happens this weekend as big stars and major road closures hit the city.
The lesson is if you aren't going to the festival try to avoid the area in front of the Art Museum and if you are gong take public transit or bike.
The two-day music festival features headliners including NBC The Voice coach Pharrell Williams, Kings of Leon, Kanye West and Steve Aoki on four different stages set up around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near the Art Museum.
Street closures and parking restrictions around the Parkway area began Wednesday morning when two lanes of the Parkway at Eakins Oval were closed. That closures expands to the entire Oval above 22nd Street starting at some point Thursday.
Closures will ramp up Friday at 10 a.m. and continue through Tuesday with no parking allowed in the festival area, according to the city.
They also say the remainder of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, from 16th to 20th Streets, may be closed to vehicular traffic if deemed necessary by public safety. If this happens, cross traffic may be restricted on the numbered streets between 16th and 20th Streets.
Here’s a breakdown of planned street closures:
- The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, beginning at 20th Street extending through Eakins Oval and behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art
- 21st Street between Winter & Spring Garden Streets
- 22nd Street between Winter & Fairmount Streets
- 23rd Street between the Benjamin Franklin Parkway & Fairmount Avenue
- 24th Street between Fairmount & Pennsylvania Avenues
- 25th Street between Fairmount & Pennsylvania Avenues
- Spring Garden Street between 20th & 31st Streets, including the Spring Garden Street tunnel
- Kelly Drive between 23rd Street & Fairmount Avenue
- Martin Luther King Drive between the Falls Bridge & the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- Pennsylvania Avenue between Hamilton & Fairmount Avenues
- 2000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Whole Foods store & 21st Street (the eastern half of the block from the Whole Foods market to 20th Street will remain open to allow access to the store)
- Park Towne Place between 22nd & 24th Streets
- I-676 Westbound off-ramp at 22nd Street (the I-676 Eastbound off-ramp at 23rd Street will be open
There will also be parking restrictions in the area:
- Pennsylvania Avenue between 22nd Street & Fairmount Avenue (south side of street)
- Winter Street between 20th & 22nd Streets (both sides of street)
- 20th Street between Vine Street & Callowhill Street (east side of street)
- 21st Street between the Benjamin Franklin Parkway & Race Street (both sides of street)
- 22nd Street between Winter & Spring Garden Streets (both sides of street)
- Park Towne Place between 22nd & 24th Streets (both sides of street)
“For the third year in a row, Labor Day weekend in the City of Philadelphia will offer a winning combination of music, culture and community, with the iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway as the backdrop for the Budweiser Made in America Festival,” said Mayor Michael Nutter.
Concert performances begin Saturday at 1:15 p.m. and end at midnight -- exact set times came out Wednesday. On Sunday the music goes from 1:15 to 11 p.m.
Festival ticket-holders and others planning to visit the parkway are urged to use public transportation to get in and out of Center City during the festival weekend, due to the road closures.
SEPTA will detour some bus routes around the festival site but will also offer extra late-night service on its Regional Rail Lines Saturday and Sunday night and 24/7 service on the Broad Street and Market-Frankford Lines all weekend. Click here for the latest schedules.
NJ Transit and PATCO are also options for festival-goers coming from New Jersey.
The Mayor's Office also says the city will provide a heavy police presence during the concert. Philadelphia Police beacons will be positioned outside the festival showing where officers are deployed to assist festival goers.
Access to the event is only available to festival ticket holders. If you want to see the music but don't plan on heading down to the festival, performances will be streamed at MadeInAmericaFest.com.
A man whose body was found in an SUV parked outside a township building died from an apparent suicide, according to investigators.
The shooting occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m. outside the township building on 100 Park Lane Drive in Lower Providence, Pa. Eagleville Park and playground, the Lower Providence Police Department and community library are also located there, according to Melissa Treacy, a reporter from our newsgathering partner the Alternative Press of Lower Providence.
Responding police officers found a 45-year-old man inside an SUV parked in the lower lot outside the building. Officials say he died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. They have not yet revealed the man's identity.
Both the body and the SUV were removed from the lot. No one else was hurt during the incident.
A man is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on a SEPTA bus and then stealing several of her kitchen appliances.
A 58-year-old woman was heading home on a Route 21 bus Saturday Aug. 16 around 9 a.m. when another passenger sat next to her and struck up a conversation, according to authorities.
The pair exited the bus and went to the woman's home on the 6200 block of Chestnut Street in West Philly, where the man sexually assaulted her, police said.
The suspect remained in the victim's home for hours after the attack, eventually leaving around 4 a.m. Sunday and taking several kitchen appliances with him, according to investigators.
Police describe the suspect as a man aged approximately 50- to 60-years-old and standing 6-feet tall with a stocky build. Surveillance footage shows the suspect was wearing a tan fisherman's hat, a black jacket with a blue shirt underneath, black pants and black sneakers with white stripes.
Authorities urge anyone with information about the crime or the suspect to contact the Philadelphia Police Department's Special Victim Unit at 215-685-3253.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
At least two people were hurt after a small plane crashed in Amity Township, Berks County Wednesday afternoon.
The plane crashed around 3:30 p.m. on the 100 block of Amity Park Road and caught fire after slamming into the field.
Two people were removed from the plane and taken to the hospital. Officials have not yet revealed their conditions.
This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.
A Montgomery County man is behind bars after an investigation revealed he was allegedly dealing an LSD-like synthetic hallucinogen that local authorities encountered for the first time in our area earlier this year.
Police arrested 21-year-old Mohammed Hassan Hanif of the Unit block of East Sixth Street in Lansdale Aug. 21 and charged him with multiple felonies including possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver a designer drug.
Authorities said they first suspected Hanif was selling drugs in April after receiving a tip that he was distributing LSD in Lansdale.
The Lansdale Borough Police and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Drug Task Force learned Hanif planned to sell what they believed was LSD in Hatfield Township, according to reports.
Investigators conducted two controlled buys of the substance, one in late April and another in late May.
After each purchase, detectives recovered two tabs of the drug, which appeared similar in size and shape to LSD. But tests revealed the substance actually contained synthetic phenethylamines, including 25C-NBOMe and 25I-NBOMe, according to authorities.
Known as "25-I" or "N-Bomb," the drug mimics the effects of LSD, police said. Authorities said this is the first time they dealt with this designer drug in Montgomery County.
The relatively unknown drug is causing alarm in other parts of the country, like Richmond, Va.
NBC12 reported in February 2012 that medical personnel handled at least five overdose cases in just one weekend. At least two of the patients had bleeding in the brain after overdosing, NBC12 reports.
The substance can come in powder form or as a liquid solution, and may be soaked onto blotter paper or laced on food, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which declared synthetic phenethylamines as illegal for two years in November 2013.
"These compounds have been linked to the deaths of at least 19 Americans aged 15 to 29 between March of 2012 and August of 2013," the DEA stated in a November 2013 news release. "The NOBMe compounds are substantially more potent than other hallucinogenic compounds, and the data suggest that extremely small amounts of these drugs can cause seizures, cardiac and respiratory arrest, and death."
The DEA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are evaluating the substance to determine if it should be made permanently illegal.
Hanif is being held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $20,000 cash bail, court records show.
A preliminary hearing for the suspect is scheduled for Sept. 4.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
The son of a man who allegedly shot and killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself was found dead at a South Jersey home.
Police say the body of 35-year-old Ryan Wychowanec was found inside his parents' home in Glendora, New Jersey on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the man's father, Raymond Wychowanec, 63, entered Kennedy University Hospital – Stratford Campus on E Laurel Road in Stratford around 9:25 a.m. to visit his 62-year-old wife, Denise, according to police.
Less than an hour later, the woman was dead.
The man fired two shots around 10:10 a.m., killing his wife. He then turned the gun on himself inside the hospital room, according to Camden County Prosecutors Office spokesman Jason Laughlin.
The woman died while her husband was treated for his injuries at Cooper University Hospital, according to authorities. He is currently in critical condition.
During the investigation, police discovered another victim who was shot to death inside the Wychowanec's home on the 800 block of Price Avenue in Glendora, N.J. Police later identified the victim as the couple's 35-year-old son Ryan.
Police are currently analyzing evidence to confirm whether the two shootings are related.
Hospital officials said the alleged shooter's wife was at Kennedy for a non-life threatening illness, but declined to provide further detail citing privacy laws.
The hospital wasn't evacuated since the shooting was considered contained.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia
A Delaware County woman is one of the first people in the state sentenced under a recent law inspired by a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.
Staci Dawson, 22, of Chester, was found guilty for the straw purchase of two handguns for a convicted felon. A straw purchase involves guns bought for someone who can’t pass a background check or who doesn’t want a gun registered in their name.
Investigators say Dawson bought a Kel-Tec 9mm model PF-9 handgun from a gun store in February. Dawson also purchased a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber handgun.
In March, Dawson’s boyfriend David Colon was arrested on drug charges while his alleged accomplice Shamar Atkinson was arrested on weapons charges. Police say Atkinson was in possession of the same Smith and Wesson that Dawson purchased.
When Dawson was brought in for questioning, she initially told police she bought the guns for her own protection and believed Colon had stolen them from her. Upon further investigation however, police determined that Dawson purchased the guns for Colon and Atkinson.
Dawson was arrested and found guilty on charges of conspiracy, making false reports to law enforcement and illegally selling or transferring firearms to another person.
“Reducing gun violence has been the number one priority of the Anti-Violence Task Force,” said District Attorney Jack Whelan. “We aggressively target straw purchases to reduce one of the methods convicted felons use to obtain firearms illegally. It is our hope that these prosecutions will discourage people from purchasing guns and placing them in the hands of dangerous criminals.”
Dawson will be sentenced for a mandatory minimum of five years due to the Brad Fox Law which was enacted in 2013. The law restores the minimum five year sentence for anyone convicted of making repeat straw gun purchases in Pennsylvania.
The law was created in honor of Officer Brad Fox, who was shot and killed in 2012 while chasing after a suspect on the Schuylkill River Trail in Montgomery County. The suspect, who shot and killed himself, got the gun through a straw purchase.
Dawson’s sentencing is scheduled for November 3.
A change in security for properties of the Philadelphia Housing Authority has sparked concerns for hundreds of local residents, many of them Senior Citizens.
Officials say security guards across all PHA properties will soon be phased out. The current 54 guards on-duty per day will be cut to 41 by September with further reductions to follow.
To cover the gap, the PHA is planning $10 million in security and technology upgrades, including fencing, new cameras, swipe card entry for residents and more patrols from PHA’s police fleet. Several residents say however that the upgrades won’t be enough to replace a live guard stationed on site.
“They’re not going to be patrolling every hour,” said Lucille Jones, a tenant at one of the complexes. “I mean, hands-on is so much better than waiting for somebody to respond to a call.”
Eventually the PHA plans to hire more police officers to stand guard at the complexes and will move towards a community policing model. In the meantime however, the security guards will be replaced by fences and cameras as soon as next week. With no guarantee of when the police officers will be hired or how many, tenants are on edge.
“It would really pain me for them to take security away from the seniors,” said George Upshur, president of the Cassie Holly Tenant Council. “Especially knowing what kind of area we live in. “
PHA officials tell NBC10 they’ve reviewed all of their security guard shifts and will make the first round of reductions only where appropriate.
