From Philadelphia to Berkeley, California, protests continue to rage in response to the decisions of two grand juries not to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

The decisions, one in Staten Island, New York and the other in Ferguson, Missouri have raised serious questions about how grand juries work and are used by prosecutors.

In his first in-depth interview on the subject, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said Philadelphians should trust the city’s grand jury process.

"When I came into office there were so many cases where victims and witnesses were terrified, where they were threatened to not testify," Williams said. 

In Pennsylvania, like in Missouri and New York, grand juries can charge defendants with crimes based on evidence presented secretly.  Williams said confidentiality is vital to the grand jury process.  Specifically in Philadelphia, he said, it allows witnesses to be protected.

"A grand jury is part of the investigation process,” Williams said. “It’s not the trial.  A trial is open to the public."

Williams has used grand juries to indict members of the Catholic Church, police officers and state representatives.

"The times I have chosen to use a grand jury are times the victims or witnesses have told us they are being intimidated,” he said.

The commonwealth’s first African American district attorney, Williams said he doesn’t understand the decision in the case of New York’s Eric Garner. Garner’s death was captured on camera as police were seen choking and tackling him during his arrest.

In the video Garner is heard saying, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe."  These are thought to be his last words.

“I don't really understand how it was in Staten Island where the police officer used a choke-hold, the coroner ruled it a homicide, how that doesn't go to a trial to let a jury of the police officer's peers decide," Williams said.

"Do you view that as a failure of the grand jury?" NBC 10 investigative reporter Mitch Blacher asked.

"I just don't know," Williams said.

The district attorney said he doesn’t have enough specific information about the case in Ferguson involving 18-year-old Michael Brown to know if that grand jury got it right.

"Has what has happened in Ferguson and what has now happened in New York, will that affect your decision whether or not to send something to a grand jury here in Philadelphia?" Blacher asked.

"Again it’s all very fact specific," Williams said

"But would it make you second guess, would it make you think about that prosecutor who had to stand in front of the country and explain why a grand jury didn't indict a police officer who killed somebody?" Blacher asked.

"Uh, no. I make those decisions all the time," Williams said.

Williams said he would have sent both cases in New York and Missouri to grand juries if the decision had been his.

A water main broke at a Northeast Philadelphia intersection sending water gushing onto the street.

The break happened shortly after 4 a.m. around Cottage and Hellerman streets in the Tacony section.

The full extent of the break wasn’t clear but a photo supplied by an NBC10 viewer showed water pouring onto the street.

It also made its way into the basement of Javier Hernández.

No word yet on the full extent of damage.

A school bus, with a student on board, cashed into a utility pole Monday morning in South Jersey.

The crash occurred around 7 a.m. along Buck Road between Harding Highway (U.S. Route 40) and Willow Grove Road in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County.

A driver and student were on board when the bus struck the pole, according to New Jersey State Police.

No one was injured, said police.

Teachers at Friends School Haverford on the Main Line are embracing a new teaching method that eliminates classroom lectures and focuses on an individual and small group teaching approach called, "workshop."

"For years teachers have thought that the most efficiently way to teach kids is to stand up and talk to them. But teachers are beginning to let go of the need to be in front lecturing students," Friends Haverford Head of School Michael Zimmerman said.

"When teachers do that, when they let go and actually engage with students, we begin to see how brilliantly the model works for them and for the students."

The workshop model is a non-traditional teaching method in which teachers follow a four-step instruction process that eliminates lectures. Instead, teachers briefly share an overview of the day's learning goals, followed by a brief set of instructions, and then releases students to work individually or in groups for the remainder of the day. The workshop closes with a short debriefing to give students an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned that day.

Zimmerman believes the curriculum will soon be adopted by teachers in elementary and middle schools throughout the country. Friends Haverford is one of the first schools in the region to adopt the teaching method, but it certainly won't be the last.

This week, administrators from several schools, including Penn View Christian School in Souderton came to visit and observe the workshop method in action at Friends Haverford. Kathleen Taylor of Penn View says the school is debating adopting the curriculum and wanted to see how it worked first-hand. Taylor said she was impressed by what she observed in Chris McCann's fifth grade math class.

"We're looking for a program that stretches their thinking and it seems like there's very good thinking processes that are being done here; the reasoning and problem solving involved seems to be pretty strong," she said. "I also like that it is hands on."

In McCann's class, students can be seen working alone or in groups of threes or fours, as he rotates from group to group answering student's questions and embedding himself in ongoing conversations about the day's assignments.

"There's a lot of independent practice and with no lecture, it's much more of a conversation," McCann said. "When I send them off to work on things independently, it is maturing them, and it works much better than if I stood over their shoulders."

Ellen Skilton-Sylvester, a professor at Arcadia University said she found the workshop method to be particularly helpful for her two daughters who attend Friends School Haverford.

"If students are applying new information by themselves at home and they get to something they don’t understand there's no room for a teaching moment. The workshop creates those teaching moments right in the classroom," she said.

"I think that is needed in all kinds of classrooms and I think it has really made a big difference for my daughter. It's made her feel like she’s able to understand these new concepts."

While Zimmerman acknowledged that small class size--a circumstance not afforded to many students attending inner city public schools--helps to facilitate the success of the workshop model, he still believes the method is effective and will soon be used at many other schools.

"In public schools, it's obviously harder to do with a higher teacher to student ratio," he said. "But the method is more challenging to the kids and they learn more quickly, so I believe it will begin to catch on."

A manhunt is underway for a former Marine reservist who prosecutors say went on a shooting spree early Monday killing six family members, including his ex-wife, and wounding a teen in three towns across Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Bradley William Stone, 35 of Pennsburg, is considered armed and dangerous. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said police are actively searching for him and residents of one town are being asked to lock themselves indoors.

Stone stands 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighs 195 lbs. He is believed to be clean-shaven, but earlier officials said he could have a red beard and close-cropped hair. He is known to use a cane or walker to assist in moving, Vetri Ferman said. He may also be wearing military fatigues — either green or brown.

The man served more than eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was deployed to Iraq, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. During his time, he earned several medals and his specialty was Artillery Meteorological Man — effectively a meteorologist that monitors weather conditions to ensure military fire accuracy.

Family friends and neighbors who know Stone said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was discharged from the military because of it.

SWAT officers used military-grade vehicles and equipment to search Stone's home in the town of Pennsburg and the surrounding area. But so far have no definitive idea of where he may be.

"We actually recovered his vehicle and his personal cell phone so we do not have information about how he might be traveling," Vetri Ferman said. She asked for the public to keep an eye out for Stone and call 911 right away if they spot him.

A man, wearing fatigues and fitting Stone's description, attempted to carjack a driver at knifepoint in the Doylestown, Bucks County area shortly before 8 p.m., county dispatchers tell NBC10. The carjacking victim then fired shots at the man as he fled into the woods, officials said.

Police spent four hours searching the area -- locking down the Central Bucks YMCA and Stonington Farms Apartments. Philadelphia Police sent one of their tatical helicopters, equipped with an infrared camera, to the area to help, officials said.

Having turned up nothing, the search was suspended around midnight, but officials asked residents to remain vigilent.

Among Stone's seven victims is his former wife, Nicole Hill Stone. She was shot inside her apartment in the Harleysville section of Lower Salford Township, just feet from their kids, around 4:55 a.m., police sources, prosecutors and neighbors tell NBC10.

“I heard the kids say, ‘Mommy no. We need my mom. I want my mom.’ And I heard [the suspect] say ‘Let’s go. We have to go now. We’re leaving,’” the woman’s next-door neighbor, at the Pheasant Run Apartments along 150 Main Street, said.

Moments after being jolted awake by the gunshots and hearing the yelling, the woman saw the children, believed to be 8-and 5-years-old, and a man running to a car parked outside.

“I opened the window and I asked him ‘Is everything OK?’ He just looked at me and said ‘She’s hurt pretty bad. We have to leave. She’s hurt.’ And he just got in the car and just left," she said.

When police arrived, they found the mother dead inside the second-floor apartment, police sources tell NBC10. Two bullet holes dotted the apartment's outer wall.

The children were located safe at the home of Stone's neighbor in Pennsburg, Vetri Ferman said.

Hill Stone was last on her ex-husband's hit list, the prosecutor said.

Stone shot the woman's mother, Jo Anne Koder, and her 75-year-old grandmother, Patricia Hill, inside their home along W. Fifth and Pierce Streets in Lansdale around 4:25 a.m., Vetri Ferman said.

The county's 911 call center received a hang up call shortly before the shooting, she said. Police spent three hours searching the area following the shooting, but turned up nothing.

A check shortly before 8 a.m. at the Souderton home of Hill Stone's sister, Trish Flick, turned up another gruesome scene.

Stone barged into Flick's Penn Avenue home around 3:30 a.m. and shot her, her husband Aaron, their 14-year-old daughter Nina and 17-year-old son Anthony, according to prosecutors.

SWAT officers surrounded the home after arriving and spent hours trying to make contact with a person they could see moving inside.

Around 11 a.m., officers fired a diversionary device into the home and, following the resulting boom, entered. They found all, but Anthony Flick dead. He was rushed to a waiting medical helicopter and flown to Thomas Jefferson Hospital's trauma center in Philadelphia, officials said.

Still, Stone was nowhere to be found.

The situation prompted homes to be evacuated and a shelter in place order to be activated in the town's school district. That was lifted around noon as SWAT officers left the Penn Avenue scene. That house remains under investigation as an active crime scene, Towamencin Township Police Chief Paul Dickinson said.

Those officers, driving a mine-resistant vehicle, then made their way to a fourth home, a duplex owned by Stone, along Main and W. 4th streets in Pennsburg. That home is about 20 miles from Souderton and is where additional SWAT officers had been stationed for hours.

Police broke down a garage door and the front door, fired several gas canisters inside and used a megaphone to say "Bradley, this is the police. Come out now."

After getting no response for hours, SWAT officers moved inside and found nothing. They then expanded their search to areas nearby.

Sources said officials have asked other county law enforcement agencies to send two-men patrol cars to assist in the search. Officials in neighboring Bucks County and the FBI confirmed they are also supporting the effort.

Because of the manhunt, the Upper Perkiomen School District, which serves Stone's town, announced its schools will be closed on Tuesday.

Officials have not released a motive for the shooting, but several of Nicole Hill's neighbors and friends said the woman feared for her life as the two went through a bitter custody dispute.

"She knew and [Bradley] would tell her that he was going to kill her," said friend Evan Weron. "She would go around to all the ladies in the neighborhood 'This man's going to kill me.' She felt threatened."

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

The family of a man shot in the head and killed by a Philadelphia police officer sought answers in the hours after the deadly incident during a traffic stop in the city’s Mayfair section.

The deadly gunshot rang out around 2:45 a.m. along the 6600 block of Frankford Avenue after police said the suspect reached for a loaded handgun — stolen last year — in his rental car.

"I would like to know why the police, law enforcement, has the right to kill instead of disabling," the victim's mother Tanya Dickerson said. "It has to stop, this is enough already."

Dickerson later identified her son Brandon Tate-Brown as gunshot victim.

Dickerson said that her son served five years in prison for aggravated assault stemming from a 2007 beating where he was charged with attempted murder. She said that since his release from prison, Tate-Brown was trying to get his life back on track — working at a rental car place — being a "good guy."

She said she last saw her son just hours earlier after the Eagles game.

An initial investigation showed that two officers — recent hires in the 15th District — pulled over a white Dodge Charger rental car outside a foot doctor’s office because the vehicle didn't have its headlights on, said police.

"We had two officers in a marked vehicle in full uniform that did approach a car," said Cpt. George Fuchs.

Police noticed a Taurus .22 caliber, SAP, handgun protruding from the center console and asked the 26-year-old driver to exit the vehicle, police said. A struggle ensued and investigators said the man forced his way back into the car and was grabbing for the loaded weapon.

One officer opened fire, striking the victim in the head.

The officers called medics who arrived and loaded Tate-Brown into an ambulance but he died a short time later.

Police remained on the scene — closing Frankford Avenue from Magee to Unruh avenues until nearly 7 a.m. — as they searched for clues. They found eight bullets in the gun, which investigators say was stolen in July 2013.

Beside the aggravated assault charge, Tate-Brown also pleaded guilty to weapons charges during his 2008 trial for attempted murder, according to court records.

The officer who fired the shot gave his statement to police while his partner was hospitalized after becoming stressed by the incident.

Police said the officer who fired would be placed on desk duty while an internal investigation is carried out.

Dickerson said Tate-Brown's family contacted the NAACP to also investigate the case.

This is the 26th officer-involved shooting so far this year in Philly and the 4th deadly police-involved shooting.

Four Texas residents were arrested in connection with a string of nearly half a dozen armed home invasions targeting families of Asian-Indian descent in one New Jersey county, officials said.

Chaka Castro, 39, Juan Olaya, 34, Octavius Scott, 22, and Johnisha Williams, 19, were all taken into custody in their home state last week, prosecutors said. It wasn't clear when they would be extradited to New Jersey. All were being held on $1.25 million bail and attorney information wasn't available.

The arrests stem from a months-long investigation into targeted armed robberies at five homes in three Middlesex County communities. In each robbery, families were tied up with duct tape and robbed of cash and jewelry. The pattern dates back to Oct. 20, when a home was hit in Old Bridge. Families were later targeted in South Plainfield and Edison.

Castro allegedly targeted the homes and directed her co-defendants to break in, tie up the families, steal jewelry and other items and smash the families' cellphones so they couldn't call for help. Scott and Olaya allegedly entered the homes, armed with at least one gun, while Williams, in all but one case, is accused of waiting outside and driving the getaway car, prosecutors said.

None of the victims were seriously injured in the robberies.

One woman whose family was attacked said robbers waved guns in front of her 4-year-old and 6-year-old sons. In another case, the home's owner said his wife was taking out the garbage when the invaders attacked. He and his wife were then tied up along with their three children.

One victim, Rajesh Singh, said he pleaded with the intruders not to harm his family.

"I just said, 'Take what you want, just don't hurt anybody,'" Singh said.

The first four home invasions were in a period of 10 days. The most recent one in the pattern was Saturday.

Residents say similar armed robberies over the last decade have coincided with the time around the Hindu holiday of Diwali, when gold jewelry is frequently given as a gift.

Peter Kothari, president of the Indo-American Cultural Society in Edison and a community activist, said the arrests marked "a great relief."

Last month, a standing room crowd angry about the wave of targeted home invasions demanded more police and neighborhood surveillance cameras at a public safety forum in Edison.

Residents say the armed robberies have occurred for a decade timed around the Hindu holiday of Diwali, when gold jewelry is frequently given as a gift.

Police created a task force of Edison, South Plainfield, and Old Bridge police, along with detectives from the Middlesex County prosecutor's office, state police and the FBI to work on the case. It wasn't clear what led them to the crew in Texas.

Castro was charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit robbery — one for each of the home invasions — among other crimes. The other suspects were charged with a series of counts arising from the break-ins, including kidnapping, robbery, aggravating assault and making terroristic threats.  

A suspect is in custody after allegedly shooting three people, criticially injuring two of them in a normally quiet Delaware County community.

The triple shooting took place on the 600 block of Glenfield Avenue in Glenolden around 9:30 Monday night, said investigators.

A suspect was taken into custody soon after the shooting.

No other details have been released.

As police intensified their search for Montgomery County shooting spree suspect Bradley Stone, Marines who served with him described the man as an odd person who had well-known troubles with his now murdered ex-wife.

“Honestly, you can say anyone’s crazy, but you wouldn’t think that they’d go and kill their family,” Adam Perone said Monday night as he tried to make sense of the six person killing spree law enforcement accused his former sergeant of carrying out.

The 27-year-old served under Stone’s command in the 3rd Battalion 14th Marine regiment based out of Northeast Philadelphia. The two spent more than a year working together before being deployed to different parts of Iraq in 2008.

“It’s just horrific. Completely horrific,” he said.

Joe, a fellow Marine who asked that his last name not be used, remembers Stone as a quiet man who didn’t mesh well with others.

“He was a younger Marine and very quiet and quite frankly a little odd,” said Joe, a higher-ranking officer in the regiment. “The common theme was always that he was little out there.”

Stone joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in October 2002, according to military records. He enjoyed the job, Perone said.

“I think the Marine Corps was everything for him. It gave him something to hang his hat on. I guess he liked that role of leadership,” Perone said.

Stone’s time in the service was not always smooth.

In April 2008, the Artillery Meteorological Man — someone who assists with military fire accuracy — began a tour in Ramadi, Iraq and returned home just two months later after health issues cropped up with his wife, Nicole Hill Stone, the men said.

While they were home, Stone would regularly discuss the tumultuous relationship with his wife, Perone said.

“He would openly talk about it. He always talking about how she was crazy and they were going through divorce at that time,” the marine said. “He was so defeated at that time. He was broke. A lot of his money is going toward that.”

Perone said years went by without him seeing Stone until 2011 when the 35-year-old re-enlisted. Stone wasn’t the same man though, according to Perone. He would talk about having troubles with post-traumatic stress disorder and the medication prescribed by doctors with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for it, he said.

“The lasting image in my head is when he came back and talked about the VA doctors and prescriptions. You know someone long enough you can tell that there was a difference,” Perone said. “He had a new girlfriend, but obviously he was still very stressed with the situation with his ex-wife.”

Stone missed two other tours of duty, according to Perone, and within a few months he would just disappear. Fellow marines made attempts to contact him, but they went unreturned. Marine Corps records show he was discharged in May 2011.

While Stone talked about having PTSD, his fellow marines raised questions about whether the man actually suffered from the disorder. They cited his short tour of duty and apparent lack of combat action as reasons.

“I don’t think he necessarily had PTSD,” Perone said. “It affects everyone differently, though.”

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

WARNING: This article contains some explicit language.

Kathryn Knott, Kevin Harrigan, and Phillip Williams haven’t seen the last of Philadelphia’s Criminal Justice Center. The three suspects in the Center City beating of a gay couple will face an arraignment early next year on aggravated assault and conspiracy charges.

The three friends accused in the attack sat before Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden on Tuesday morning for a preliminary hearing. Representing the commonwealth, Assistant District Attorney Mike Barry questioned two witnesses: one of the victims, Zachart Hesse and Geoff Nagle, a witness who saw the altercation go down from his apartment window.

Hesse relived the encounter for everyone in the room.

Hesse, 28, testified he and his boyfriend, Andrew Haught, 27, were on their way to get pizza on the evening of Thursday Sep. 11 when they were assaulted by a group of ten or more men and women on 16th and Chancellor. Hesse said the attackers made homophobic comments before and after they beat up the couple.

According to Hesse, Harrigan, 26, asked "Is that your fucking boyfriend?" as the two parties approached each other. "Yeah he is my fucking boyfriend. Do you have a problem with that?" replied Hesse. Harrigan countered with, "So you’re a dirty, fucking faggot?" "Maybe I am a dirty, fucking faggot," said Hesse.

What followed was a face-to-face physical encounter between Harrigan and Hesse. Each side blames the other for instigating the attack. The couple was surrounded and endured a brutal beating. Hesse reported having his arms held while a woman in a white dress--allegedly Knott, 24—clawed at his face while she yelled, "Fuck you, faggot!"

Haught was left half-conscious in a pool of his own blood and driven to Hahnemann University Hospital for treatment. Both victims suffered black eyes and cuts to the face, but Haught was knocked out with two broken cheekbones and needed his jaw wired shut for seven or eight weeks.

Hesse described the entire pushing, shoving, and screaming ordeal as "messy" and couldn’t recall certain details when asked.

The defendants’ lawyers attempted to use this to their advantage during the cross-examinations in which they badgered Hesse with confusing questions to expose holes in his story.

They also asked the judge to reduce charges of aggravated assault and get rid of conspiracy charges for all involved.

Harrigan’s lawyer, Josh Scarpello, claimed the group was not working together because two different fights took place -- the initial altercation with his client and Hesse and the second one occurring when the girl became involved. His version of events sees Harrigan "retreat from the battle" after that first punch.

Scarpello blamed Hesse for starting the fight, claiming he used "fighting words" when he asked Harrigan if he had a problem instead of just walking away.

Knott’s lawyer, Lou Busico, said Nagle saw a woman pointing a finger during the incident, but couldn’t say it was Kathryn. He also says if she was the one to claw at Hesse’s face, she caused no bodily harm.

Using Nagle’s testimony, Williams’s attorney, Fred Perri, claimed his client was not "one of the initial aggressors" and only became involved when one of the men punched a woman. "We will plead absolutely not guilty and we will defend ourselves at trial. His actions were justified that night," he said.

Barry sees it in a very different light. He says there is no record of a woman being hit and the conspiracy charges are evident from the group's conduct. He feels people were fine with joining in after Harrigan hit Hesse and no one chose to walk away until Haught was barely conscious on the ground.

"I have no doubt this was about their sexual orientation," he said. "No other interaction, no other reason for action. Just simply [the group] coming up to them and slurring them for who they are."

The suspects will be formally charged and learn of any future court proceedings on Jan. 6.