About 30,000 runners flocked to Pennsylvania's largest city for the 20th annual Philadelphia Marathon and related events.
The winner of Sunday's men's race was Abebe Mekuriya of Ethiopia, who finished in two hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds. The women's winner was Irina Alexandrova of Russia, who turned in a time of two hours, 39 minutes and six seconds. (Both pictured)
Both winners will receive the top prize of $3,500.
The top local runner was 24-year-old Nick Hilton, who finished third in the men's race. The Arizona resident is originally from Reading.
Weekend events also included a half marathon, an 8k race and a Kids Fun Run.
Here are the full results and times:
MARATHON
Men's Division Marathon
Abebe Mekuriya, City Falls, NY 2:17:35
Tesfaye Dube, New York, NY 2:18:15
Nicholas Hilton, Flagstaff, AZ 2:19:36
Birhanu Mekonnen, Washington, DC 2:19:59
Abiyot Endale, Bronx, NY 2:20:55
Women's Division Marathon
Irina Alexandrova, Hebron, KY 2:39:06
Tezeta Dengersa, Washington, DC 2:40:13
Meseret Basa, New York, NY 2:40:51
Aregash Abate, High Falls, NY 2:42:41
Amanda Marino, Jackson, NJ 2:43:57
Men's Masters Division Marathon
Jae Yung Hyung, Alburquerque, NM 2:24:40
Rich Burke, Morristown, NJ 2:31:20
Ray Pugsley, Potomac Falls, VA 2:34:06
Doug Fernandez, Richmond, VA 2:37:49
Women's Masters Division Marathon
Mary Pardi, Falmouth, ME 2:53:39
Myriam Grenon, Longueuil, QC, Canada 2:59:16
Catherine Spiess, New Albany, OH 3:06:15
Kim Redden, Ottawa, MB Canada 3:06:45
Men's Wheelchair Marathon
Grant Berthiaume, Tuscon, AZ 2:04:26
HALF MARATHON
Men's Division Half Marathon
Elijah Karanja Hebron, KY 1:02:59
Direba Yigezu New York, NY 1:03:23
Jordan Chipangama Flagstaff, AZ 1:03:28
Yonas Mebrahtu East Flagstaff, AZ 1:03:53
Henry Rutto Royersford, PA 1:04:10
Women's Division Half Marathon
Rkia El Moukim Queens, NY 1:10:53
Adrienne Herzog, Boulder, CO 1:12:59
Jane Murage, Royersford, PA 1:12:59
Ingrid Mollenkopf, Flower Mound, TX 1:13:04
Allison Mendez, Austin, TX 1:13:47
Men's Masters Half Marathon
Eric Shafer, Pittsburgh, PA 1:13:21
Paul Thompson, Peekskill, NY 1:13:23
Kevin Beugless, Media, PA 1:17:05
Martin Fontaine, Otterburn Park, QC Canada 1:17:51
Women Masters Half Marathon
Vicky Jasparro Fredericksburg, VA 1:25:24
Jill Tenny, Harrisburg, PA 1:21:24
Susanne Vanzijl, Elkton, MD 1:29:49
Vicki Boyer, Elizabethtown, PA 1:29:42
Men's Wheelchair Half Marathon
Shannon Franks, College Park, MD 1:09:53
Daniel Wheeler, Shamong, NJ 2:11:44
Women's Wheelchair Half Marathon
Michelle Wheeler, New York, NY 1:30:51
Detectives in the Bahamas are investigating the drowning of a 32-year-old man from Brooklyn who was participating in a free diving tournament, police said Sunday.
Event organizer William Trubridge identified the man as Nicholas Mevoli.
The incident happened around 2 p.m. off the coast of the Bahamas' Long Island, which is about 164 miles southeast of the capital of Nassau.
Mevoli's body was brought to shore, where a local doctor pronounced him dead, police said. His body was flown to Nassau, where an autopsy was expected.
Trubridge said Mevoli was trying to break a record for the deepest "Constant No Fins" free dive at the International Free Diving Competition, a nine-day contest that organizers say brought 56 divers from 21 countries. They were competing for a $20,000 prize as they tried to see who could dive the deepest without fins.
The event was canceled after Mevoli's death, Trubridge said.
Mevoli was the current U.S. record holder for "two or three other" free diving contests, Trubridge said.
The Bahamas competition took place at Dean's Blue Hole, which at 663 feet, is considered the world's deepest underwater sinkhole in seawater.
The Red Cross is assisting three families displaced after a multi-unit fire in Camden, N.J.
WATCH: 53M People at Risk as Storm Wallops Midwest
The fire started just after 5:00 p.m. on the 600 block of North Front Street.
Fire investigators are working to figure out how the fire started.
Eight adults and two children are getting assistance from the Red Cross with food, clothing and a place to stay.
MORE NEWS:
The man who was shot outside a South Street bar in Philadelphia has died from his injuries.
Philadelphia Police tell NBC10 the 21-year-old man, whose identity hasn't been released, died at the hospital at 7:35 p.m.
Investigators say this all started as a fight inside the Mixed Plate bar and restaurant on the 200 block of South Street around 1:15 a.m. The fight eventually spilled out into the street.
During the brawl, police say a 23-year-old man pulled out a gun and fired ten shots.
“One of the people from inside the bar started shooting at one of the other people from inside the bar” said Philadelphia Police Captain Frank Llewellyn. “Ten shots were fired."
The 21-year-old man was struck several times. He was rushed to Jefferson Hospital.
Police say the suspect fled the scene but was eventually apprehended and arrested about a block away at Front and Bainbridge Streets. Police also say they recovered his weapon.
No other injuries were reported during the shooting.
“It’s pretty amazing that nobody else was shot out here with all those rounds going," said Captain Llewellyn.
Police have not yet released the identities of the suspect or victim.
The mother of a 14-year-old boy whose son was arrested for shoplifting is accusing police of roughing him up.
*Warning: Story Contains Graphic Images*
"The picture speaks a thousand words," says Marissa Sargeant, who shared several graphic photos with NBC10 that shows her son bruised, cut and swollen.
The teen was arrested by Tullytown Police for retail theft at Walmart on Tuesday night, along with two adult relatives. "What he did was wrong. He was coerced by a 19 year old. He does know better," said Sargeant.
Authorities say after the teen's arrest, and before he was loaded into a police car, he took off running along Route 13 while handcuffed.
The Bucks County District Attorney tells NBC10 that police officers yelled warnings at the teen and fearing for his safety, they fired a taser to subdue him. The D.A. says the taser struck the boy in the face and with his hands cuffed, the boy had no way to brace himself against falling face-first.
"That doesn't sound right. There's no way, if he was running from behind, that he would get hit with a taser in the front of his face," said Sargeant.
Sargeant says the officers must have hit or kicked her son, and then told him not to tell anyone. The boy was taken directly to the hospital for treatment.
Police aren't offering up anymore information because of the family's threat of a lawsuit.
"I just want some justice. I even pray for the police officers because they need help," said Sargeant.
The District Attorney tells NBC10 his office has reviewed the case and will only do its own investigation if they are asked.
It was the evidence that Joseph Ligambi's lawyers didn't want a jury to hear.
But in a one-two punch Wednesday, federal prosecutors laid out two of the most contentious elements of their racketeering case against the reputed head of the Philadelphia mob.
First, Joaquin Garcia, a former undercover FBI agent who once infiltrated New York's Gambino crime family, regaled jurors with tales of Mafia rituals, violence, and the gangsters with whom he once rubbed elbows.
Then came a recording of a four-hour 2010 lunch meeting between Ligambi and other mobsters from Philadelphia and New York in which they checked up on imprisoned friends, described a mob initiation ceremony in detail, and hashed out disputes over territory.
From the start, Ligambi was introduced to the group as "our acting boss."
Twice, Ligambi's lawyer Edwin Jacobs Jr. has tried unsuccessfully to have that recording and Garcia's testimony thrown out - once before his client's first trial on racketeering conspiracy charges last year, and again after a deadlocked jury prompted the retrial that began this month.
In the former agent's case, Jacobs has argued that Garcia's experience with the Gambino clan - one of New York's five Mafia families - offers little insight into the workings of the Philadelphia mob. What's worse, he said, the agent's tales of strip-club shakedowns and a seventy-something Gambino capo still capable of delivering a beat down would only serve to prejudice jurors.
But in terms of pure entertainment, Garcia didn't disappoint.
Jurors listened raptly Wednesday as the Cuban immigrant detailed his efforts to pass himself off as a low-level Italian crook named Jack Falcone. He eventually became the driver and confidant of Gambino captain Gregory DePalma, who gave the then-agent a jewel-laden pinkie ring to commemorate his welcome to the crew.
"Unfortunately, it was quite gaudy and ugly," the former agent said. "But it would have been disrespectful to him not to wear it."
Garcia said he observed talk of all manner of crimes, ranging from extortion to insurance fraud, during his nearly three years with DePalma. At one point, the captain directed Garcia and other members of his crew to join a union so they could sign up for health insurance.
"It was better than the FBI's, actually," he quipped.
Joking aside, Garcia said he never forgot the danger of his assignment.
"Without their ability to terrorize, you would not have La Cosa Nostra," he said. "This is not a Rotary club, a Knights of Columbus. This is La Cosa Nostra."
Prosecutors maintain that the recording of the May 2010 lunch meeting echoes the violent tendencies Garcia described.
Ligambi and other Philadelphia mob associates met that afternoon with several high-ranking members of the Gambino family over pasta and wine at La Griglia, a posh eatery in Kenilworth, N.J.
But as they conducted what authorities have described as a Mafia "board of directors" meeting, neither group realized it was being recorded by Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli, a North Jersey mobster and FBI cooperator.
Ligambi can be heard throughout the audio played Wednesday. He updated the others on the status of incarcerated associates, including former Philadelphia boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, and cracked jokes about others held in lower regard.
Describing the slim pickings offered by one of the poorer earners in his New Jersey faction, Ligambi cracked: "He's selling cakes out of the trunk of his car."
Later, recalling another associate's initiation ceremony -- a ritual that entailed a knife prick to the finger to symbolize a new member's blood commitment -- Ligambi earned some of his biggest laughs.
"The . . . blood splashed all over my shirt. . . . It splashed all over me," he said. "I still got the shirt at home. I saved it."
Tales like those led Jacobs, during the first trial, to describe the meeting as nothing more than a gathering of nostalgic geriatrics swapping tales of the mob's long-gone glory days.
Earlier, he argued the recording shouldn't be played at all. Stefanelli, the informant, committed suicide last year and cannot be called for cross-examination.
Still, Garcia led jurors through the tape Wednesday, identifying the speakers and explicating their often garbled mutterings, including a lament from North Jersey mobster Joseph "Scoops" Licata about the low-quality of the mob's recent recruits.
Louis "Big Lou" Fazzini agreed: "It's not about money. It's about . . . brotherhood."
But even as they spoke, that brotherhood was being betrayed.
Garcia is expected to resume his testimony Thursday.
This story was reported through a news coverage partnership between NBC10.com and The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia police are on the hunt for a man who they say punched a man in the face on a SEPTA train during an attempted robbery.
Police say a 23-year-old man was on a Market-Frankford elevated train traveling toward 69th Street at 8:30 a.m. back on October 30. As he was on the train, the man told police he noticed another man acting “suspicious.”
As the train approached the Berks Street station, police say the suspect approached the 23-year-old man and punched him in the face, demanding his cell phone. Police say the suspect then ran off the train and fled at the Berks Street station after other passengers intervened and stopped the attack.
The victim suffered a cut lip and swelling to his face.
The suspect is described as a slim, dark-skinned man with a beard standing at 5-foot-11. They also say he was wearing a two-tone gray jacket with tan corduroy pants, black and gray Nike sneakers and a black skull cap.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, please call Philadelphia Police.
What began as a birthday celebration ended in a case of apparent road rage that left one woman hospitalized and several cars damaged.
A group had just wrapped up celebrating a woman’s upcoming birthday when they say a driver struck that woman near 2nd and Wyoming Streets in Philadelphia’s Feltonville neighborhood and kept driving
“My sister’s walking across the street from the bar … and the other woman hit her and kept going,” said Nichole Whetstone.
Whetstone’s sister Tracy Robinson, 31, was struck and remained hospitalized at Einstein Hospital Thursday morning.
Whetstone, who was already behind the wheel of her Chrysler Sebring says she took off after the Chevrolet Malibu.
"She sped off and she kept coming, she was driving fast,” Whetstone said. “By the time I got to the corner she was already up here -- she had to see me in her rearview. I feel like she tried to cut me off and go down the street -- that's how I got hit on the side."
The Malibu driver ultimately crashed into two cars parked on E Rockland Street.
Philadelphia Police spent the morning alerting neighbors of the damage and trying to figure out exactly what happened. Security cameras in the area could help in the investigation.
No one was immediately charged.
An early morning blaze tore through a family's store and home causing causing a father to take on the role of hero.
The flames broke in a corner store at N 26th and W Sergeant Streets in North Philadelphia. The fire quickly spread to the apartment above where the family that owns the store lives.
The store owner Eddis Manzanillo says awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm around 3:50 a.m.
Manzanillo, who lives above the store with his children, quickly woke up his 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.
Manzanillo told translator Samuel Rivera about what happened next.
"He makes his way to the back window -- the kids' room -- takes the window out and lowers the kids one at a time, drops them down." said Rivera. "Then he jumps out himself."
Manzanillo then rushed to a nearby firehouse -- Engine 45 -- to ask for help, according to authorities.
The kids were rushed to St. Christopher’s Hospital but later released to the care of family members, according to their father.
No firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, according to fire Lt. Stephen Paslawski.
Heavy smoke poured out of broken windows as firefighters battled the blaze. By 5 a.m. they had the blaze under control.
The investigation continues into what caused the blaze but firefighters do say it appeared to have started in the front of the store.
As the sun came up, investigators could be seen taking items out of the store.
Manzanillo said he is grateful his family is OK and that that is more important than his store, which he as owned for about two years.
Police charged a boy Thursday for allegedly torching an elderly woman’s trailer earlier this month.
The fire consumed the unidentified woman’s trailer along Tall Pines Drive off S State Street by Tidbury Park in Dover, Del.
Camden Wyoming Fire Company firefighters rescued the woman from the dwelling and rushed her to the hospital where she remained in critical condition suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, according to the state fire marshal.
Through an investigation, authorities discovered that a 13-year-old boy living in the home alleged started the blaze. He was charged with felony reckless burning and reckless endangerment and committed to Stevenson House in lieu of $2,500 secured bond.
Over an eight-month period beginning in June 2011, Google allegedly bypassed Safari’s privacy settings without users’ consent — and it will cost them.
Pennsylvania, along with 36 other states and the District of Columbia, entered into a $17-million settlement with Google for the violation. Pennsylvania will receive $484,000.
"I am so proud to have worked across state and party lines to send a clear message to Internet firms across the spectrum that consumers and their privacy must be respected," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane announced in a statement. Read more about the settlement on PBJ.com
More NBC10.com stories:
For more breaking business news go to PBJ.com
SkyForce10 was over the scene of a delivery truck crash in Philadelphia Thursday afternoon.
Police say the FedEx truck was stolen from Ridge and Lehigh avenues just before 1:30.
One witness says the FedEx driver told her he was delivering packages when someone jumped into his truck and sped off.
Not long after, the suspect crashed the vehicle into a telephone pole at 25th and Willard streets.
The driver jumped from the delivery truck and ran, according to witnesses.
Police apprehended the man a block from the crash scene.
The company released this statement:
“FedEx Ground is aware of the incident in Philadelphia, and we extend our thanks to the local law enforcement who apprehended the suspects. We will continue to fully cooperate during this time.”
More News:
A pickup truck driver was killed when he slammed into a utility truck this morning in Delaware County, Pa.
The utility truck was stopped at a light, according to Darby Township police, when the truck hit it.
Police say speed was a factor.
The truck driver was a 53-year-old man from Sharon Hill.
Police are not releasing him name until they've had a chance to notify his family.
The crash happened around 8 a.m. at Hook Road and Industrial Way in Darby Township, Pa.
The driver of the utility truck, which operates with a lift or cherry picker for hoisting workers, was not hurt.
Click here for more news from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
