A man is dead after being shot in the head as he sat in a car along a Kensington street overnight Sunday, Philadelphia Police said.

The shooting took place around 1 a.m. along the 1200 block of E. Atlantic Street, police said. Investigators believe the car's driver is the person who pulled the trigger.

The victim was rushed to Temple University Hospital in extremely critical condition. He died around 4 a.m., police said.

Detectives found narcotics and cash inside the car. A description of the suspect wasn't immediately available.

Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians crave daily injections of heroin. Beyond the threat of overdose is the threat of being exposed to HIV and hepatitis C, both deadly and expensive illnesses that are easily spread through contaminated needles.

But in Pennsylvania, distributing sterile syringes is a criminal act.

For years, Dianna Pagan feared that giving out clean syringes in Reading would land her in jail. Officials there recently agreed to let her needle exchange operate, though she’s faced numerous setbacks for more than a decade, including being shut down following the threat of prosecution.

“There’s no protection,” said Pagan, who contracted HIV while using drugs at age 19. In an effort to help others, she started distributing clean needles more than 15 years ago through Reading Risk Reduction.

Only in Allegheny County and Philadelphia have local leaders publicly supported needle exchanges, essentially ignoring state law out of concern for public health.

Elsewhere, identical efforts expose volunteers to legal hassles and, in the worst case, jail, if police and prosecutors decide they’re violating the state’s drug paraphernalia law.

“We have laws on the books that are causing needless illness and death,” said Caroline Acker, who helped start Prevention Point Pittsburgh in 1995, back before local officials gave it protection.

Most of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have explicitly authorized at least some needle exchanges, as have other states hit with an injection drug crisis.

Most notably, Indiana lawmakers passed a needle exchange bill after Gov. Mike Pence — previously an opponent to needle exchanges — authorized a short-term exchange following a sudden and troubling spike in HIV cases.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania has seen an increase in heroin use and in acute hepatitis C, though the state’s health and drug treatment agencies say they lack the authority to fund or implement exchanges.

Reducing Harm

Needle exchanges in Pennsylvania are nothing new.

In the midst of an HIV crisis in the early 1990s, volunteers in Philadelphia began passing out clean syringes, targeting a high-risk population at a time when injection drug use was tied to nearly half of all local HIV cases.

Exchanges operate under the assumption that drug use won’t stop just because clean needles aren’t available.

In 1992, then-Mayor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, declared a public health emergency, putting the weight of his office behind Prevention Point Philadelphia, the state’s longest-running syringe exchange.

The state threatened a crackdown, but none came.

Now only about 5 percent of new HIV cases in Philadelphia are spread through syringes, according to the city’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office.

“People are telling each other, ‘You need to keep yourself safe,’” Jose Benitez, Prevention Point Philadelphia’s executive director, told PublicSource, explaining how drug users embraced the program.

Allegheny County soon followed.

In 1995, volunteers from the unaffiliated Prevention Point Pittsburgh set up card tables to distribute clean syringes and safely dispose of used ones.

Early on, workers faced the threat of arrest and pressure from unhappy neighbors to move elsewhere.

But the county health department eventually embraced the program, giving it regular space to distribute and collect needles. It was authorized by the Allegheny County Council in 2008.

Richard Smith, HIV/AIDS project director for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, said few new HIV cases in the Pittsburgh area are tied to injection drug use. The foundation was one of Prevention Point Pittsburgh’s first supporters. JHF also provides funding support to PublicSource.

So, the state’s two largest cities accept needle exchanges as effective interventions. But Pennsylvania’s heroin crisis affects small cities and rural areas as well. And when needles are shared, outbreaks of HIV and hepatitis C can follow.

Underground exchanges are operating in Lancaster and Harrisburg, both with implied support from local officials, as well as in Reading.

Scott Burris, professor of law at Temple University, says the flare-up of HIV in the state of Indiana should serve as a cautionary tale.

More than 140 people tested positive for HIV in the state’s Scott County, which has about 24,000 residents and an injection drug problem. Indiana’s governor opposed needle exchanges in the past but signed a bill to authorize exchanges during health emergencies.

“That should be a warning for every small Pennsylvania city and town,” said Burris, who has studied needle exchange and drug paraphernalia laws nationwide.

In rural areas, Burris said, drug users are part of a close-knit community. They tend to know each other, and they tend to inject together.

That means if one person has a bloodborne disease, it can spread quickly to anyone sharing the same needle. HIV and hepatitis C can spread to non-drug users through other means, including sexual contact.

Both HIV and hepatitis C can be deadly and are extremely expensive to treat. Hepatitis C can be even easier to contract than HIV, meaning a new syringe isn’t always enough to stop transmission because other paraphernalia may be contaminated, said Acker, a public health historian and head of the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University.

Nationwide, acute cases of hepatitis C spiked 75 percent from 2010 to 2012, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributes mostly to drug use by young, white people in nonurban areas.

In Pennsylvania — which has a drug problem that includes that exact demographic — acute cases of hepatitis C more than doubled over the same period. The state has not pinpointed a cause for the increase.

Both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs say they want to prevent the spread of bloodborne diseases. But they also lack the authority to implement or invest resources in needle exchanges.

“We are looking at actions that other states are taking to address mitigating the spread of HIV and hepatitis,” Amy Worden, communications director for the Department of Health, said in an emailed statement on behalf of both agencies.

The Federal Paradox

Renee Cox, executive director of Prevention Point Pittsburgh, said funding is a major hurdle.

Pennsylvania gives no money to exchanges, and Congress in December 2011 reinstituted a decades-old federal ban on funding exchanges. This means programs are dependent on limited private grant money and local support.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who currently sits on the congressional subcommittee that oversees HIV-related spending, explains why he’d like the ban to continue.

To him, harm reduction means interdicting drugs and getting users to treatment. It doesn’t mean supporting exchanges.

“It does not make sense for the federal government to hold the use of heroin to be illegal while at the same time funding the distribution of the paraphernalia required to use the drug,” Dent said in an emailed statement.

Exchange opponents argue that the programs encourage drug use, saying in essence that fewer people would inject heroin if fewer sterile syringes were available.

The federal funding ban was lifted briefly in 2009, with support from the Obama administration and AIDS activists.

After two years, however, the ban was reinstated, despite the CDC’s embrace of needle exchanges as an effective intervention to control bloodborne diseases.

The research on bloodborne diseases has existed for many years and is backed by public health experts across the country, including those in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

In 2009, the state’s Board of Pharmacy made syringes available without a prescription, a move that signals support for increased access despite state law.

Barriers remain because pharmacists are empowered to decide if they want to sell syringes to customers they suspect of using drugs. Carrying a syringe for illicit drug use is still illegal.

The state has previously said its funding ban keeps it in line with the federal government.

Burris refutes this notion, saying the state should be free to spend its own money as it sees fit, just as Philadelphia spends its own local money on its exchange.

“There’s really no good reason we couldn’t have needle exchanges across the state wherever people are injecting,” Burris said.

Outlaws No More?

With states like Indiana supporting needle exchanges — at least minimally — and Gov. Tom Wolf’s recent embrace of the anti-overdose drug naloxone, supporters are hopeful that needle exchanges can come up from the underground.

Change could come in several ways.

One could be executive action from Wolf, similar to what Pence did in Indiana or what former Gov. Rendell did on a smaller scale as mayor of Philadelphia.

“The governor could say, ‘Look, this is a health emergency,’” said Benitez, of Prevention Point Philadelphia.

A representative from the governor’s press office did not respond to inquiries about Wolf’s stance on syringe exchanges.

The governor, however, wants to limit the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, deputy press secretary Ajeenah Amir said in an email statement.

That includes working with state agencies and communities to “promote awareness about the dangers of contracting disease through shared needles,” the statement said.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg could also remove the word “syringe” from the state’s paraphernalia law, something several other states have done already.

If syringes aren’t explicitly named, supporters said, programs would have more protection to hand out clean needles without worrying about law enforcement.

Or local governments could follow the lead of Philadelphia and Allegheny County and either declare a health emergency or pass a local ordinance to authorize exchanges.

For volunteers like Pagan, that would mean harm reduction gets an official blessing and public health efforts would no longer be at odds with state law.

“They’ve been doing it here for more than 20 years in Philadelphia,” Burris said. “And the sky has not fallen.”

Reach Jeffrey Benzing at 412-315-0265 or at jbenzing@publicsource.org. Follow him on Twitter @jabenzing. This story was originally published on PublicSource.

Take Action

Despite public health research that supports needle exchanges, state law continues to say that distributing syringes for drug use is illegal.

If you support or oppose a change in law, let your state senator and state representative know.

If you want to know more about the Commonwealth’s response to the heroin crisis and increased risk for HIV and hepatitis C, contact the Department of Health and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

If you support or oppose executive action, contact Gov. Tom Wolf.

If you support local changes, contact your city and county government.

If you support or oppose federal funding for needle exchanges, contact your senator and representative.

For more information on local harm reduction, contact Prevention Point Pittsburgh, Prevention Point Philadelphia, Lancaster Harm Reduction Project or the Harrisburg Harm Reduction Project.

Visit the CDC online for federal research on HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and needle exchanges.

--Compiled by Jeffrey Benzing

A gunman shot and killed a man in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon.

The 24-year-old man was on the 5300 block of Hazelhurst Street at 2:05 p.m. when a gunman opened fire. The man was struck once in the head and the gunman fled the scene. The victim was taken to Presbyterian Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 p.m.

Police have not yet recovered a weapon and have not yet released a description of the gunman. They continue to investigate.

This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.

A copyright infringement lawsuit claiming the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin stole the classic guitar pluck for "Stairway to Heaven" from another 1970s rock band will continue to be considered — just not in Philadelphia.

U.S. District Court Judge Juan Sanchez on Friday chose not to dismiss the lawsuit, which was first filed last May on behalf of the trust for Spirit band member Randy California whose real name is Randy Craig Wolfe, in the "interest of justice," he wrote in a memo.

Sanchez did, however, grant a motion filed by attorneys for the band and record label Warner Music Friday to move the case to the Central District of California.

California's trustees allege Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page used the same guitar riff that Spirit used in the song "Taurus," which was released two years earlier in 1968. Zeppelin opened for the band while on tour and covered their songs a year before Page penned "Stairway," the lawsuit claims.

Many fans and critics have noted the similarities between the songs. (Listen: "Taurus" | "Stairway to Heaven") Bloomberg Business even created an online game asking people to try and spot differences.

Attorneys for the band and their record labels sought to have the suit tossed out on jurisdictional grounds as none of the parties involved — including California's trust — has ties to Pennsylvania with the exception of trust attorney Francis Alexander Maloify, who is based in Media. If Sanchez wouldn't dismiss the case, the defendants wanted it transferred to a California court.

The trust is seeking undisclosed compensation in the case. An attorney for the band could not be immediately reached for comment.

A woman had to be rescued from the roof of a burning Southwest Philadelphia home and two others jumped out of a back window to escape the flames Sunday morning, witnesses and firefighters tell NBC10.

The rowhome along the 5700 block of Gray's Avenue in the Kingsessing section caught fire around 10:30 a.m., fire officials said.

A man and woman jumped from a rear window to safety. A third woman climbed onto the roof of the two story brick-front house. Firefighters used a ladder to get her to safety.

Two of the residents were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for smoke inhalation, fire officials said. Their conditions were not immediately known.

The fire was placed under control in about 15 minutes. No word on a cause.

Jay Mohan lived to tell stories through film.

The 26-year-old Philly filmmaker created movies and helped others showcase theirs. He worked at film festivals and offered budding artists access to the airways through his job at PhillyCam, the city's public media station.

And hours before a collision between a car and his bicycle claimed his life early Sunday, he was sitting in a Society Hill theater watching an independent film: "While We're Young."

"He was a really amazing person. Really into film and art and music. He had a lot of plans for himself," said Maori Karmael Holmes, his girlfriend. The two had been seriously dating for the past year.

Mohan had ridden his bike to the theater, and Holmes didn't ride, so she jumped in a cab and they parted ways for the night. She to her place as he made his way toward his Brewerytown home. Nearly there, at the intersection of Ridge and Girard Avenues, he was hit by a Buick driving west on Girard.

The impact left Mohan with serious head trauma and multiple fractures, Philadelphia Police said. It doesn't appear he was wearing a helmet. Paramedics rushed him to Hahnemann University Hospital where he died nearly three hours later.

A Chicago, Illinois native, Mohan came to Philadelphia by way of Temple University, where he earned a degree in Film and Media Arts. Mohan's mother and sister live in India. Homes, who runs the BlackStar Film Festival that showcases films about the black experience, said he wanted to make feature films and was "always writing" in his spare time.

Friends shocked by Mohan's death described him as humble, generous and bold.

"He was just a sweet, kind person. He took care of a lot of people," Holmes told NBC10. "It’s an incredible loss, especially someone so young."

The crash remains under investigation.

A mother of two died from her injuries after a fire started at a Delaware home on Mother's Day.

A man, woman, their son and daughter, both under the age of 10, two other residents and two dogs were inside when the fire began at their home on the 1900 block of Reynolds Road in Milford around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the Chief of the Frederica Volunteer Fire Department said.

The Fire Chief told NBC10 a neighbor managed to rescue the two children and two of the dogs.  However, one of the dogs later died from injuries sustained during the fire.

The kids' father tried to rescue their mother and was severely burned in the process, the department said. The mother later died from her injuries.

Fire crews were able to bring the flames under control around 12:30 p.m.

Four of the injured victims were taken to Milford Memorial Hospital and later released. The father was flown to Kent General Hospital and later transferred to the Crozer Medical Center in Upland.

Officials also have not yet revealed the mother's identity. They continue to investigate the cause of the blaze. The fire caused an estimated $50,000 in damage, according to investigators.

This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.

A bullet struck a home in the Darby Borough Sunday after a brawl led to a shooting.

Police say a group of people armed with bats and other weapons began fighting on 3rd Street and Greenway Avenue. During the fight, at least one person pulled out a gun and opened fire. Six rounds in all were fired and at least one bullet struck a nearby home, police said.

No one was killed or seriously hurt during the incident. Police continue to investigate.

This story is developing. Stay with NBC10.com for updates.

This article was originally published HERE

Just shy of one hundred and eighty three years after she was murdered at the Duffy’s Cut work site in Pennsylvania, the remains of Catherine Burns will be returned to her native Co. Tyrone for commemoration and burial.

In 1832, Burns, a widow at the age of 29, immigrated to America with her father-in-law, laborer John Burns, on board the ship John Stamp. After two trying months at sea, they arrived in Philadelphia on June 23, 1832.

Catherine was one of 70 residents of Tyrone among the 160 passengers to leave for a new life in the new world. Within eight weeks of their arrival, Catherine and John disappeared from the historic record.

By the end of August 1832, all 57 workers, Catherine included, were dead. Some perished due to a cholera outbreak that swept the work site, but most were murdered before they had a chance to succumb to the disease.

They were forgotten, buried in a mass grave, for over 100 years. The site and its story have been brought to light over the past 12 years by brothers Frank and William Watson, a Lutheran minister and a historian at Immaculata University. The Watson brothers, along with their colleague Earl Schandelmeier, founded the Duffy’s Cut Project in 2002. Since then the Duffy’s Cut Project team has worked to excavate the site, identify any remains, determine the causes of death, and secure funding for the project’s continued work.

As Frank Watson explained, “All of those recovered to this date were murdered by blunt force trauma, and one was both axed and shot in the head. None of the murdered show defensive wounds, indicating that they may have been tied up prior to being murdered.

“Among the six recovered at Duffy's Cut was the first man found, 18-year-old John Ruddy from Donegal, who was reinterred at Holy Family Cemetery in Ardara, County Donegal on March 2, 2013.

The other five men were buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd on March 9, 2012.

“The last person recovered at Duffy's Cut in the summer of 2010 was a woman aged to around 30 years of age by our physical anthropologist, Dr. Janet Monge of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. This woman's remains showed that she was used to heavy labor, similar to the men buried alongside of her in the 1832 railroad fill. She suffered perimortem (at the time of death) blunt force trauma to her head, as did the men (they were beaten to death).”

IrishCentral last reported on the intentions to return Catherine home to Co. Tyrone in March, and just this week Watson was delighted to confirm that the plans are now in place, thanks to funds raised by the project coordinators and the Philadelphia Irish community.

Her remains will be buried with a full funeral mass on Sunday, July 19, 2015, at 12:30 pm, at the Clonoe parish, near Coalisland, Tyrone, with a burial immediately after in the church cemetery. Father Benny Fee will preside.

“We feel that there will be an historic bookend placed onto this part of the project, with Duffy's Cut graves in both Donegal and Tyrone,” Watson said. “As part of the journey to bury Catherine Burns, we plan on returning to Ardara to place a marker over the grave of John Ruddy, as well as over the grave of Catherine Burns after she is buried in Clonoe.”

And what of the other victims?

Watson said that he and the rest of the Duffy’s Cut Project team hope to continue the dig at Duffy's Cut, pending ongoing negotiations with Amtrak, who own the land.

It is their mission, he said, “to make the recovery of the rest of the Irish laborers buried there possible, and thus to tell the full story of those who lost their lives helping to build America.”

For more information about the Duffy’s Cut Project, visit their website or Facebook page.

A Lehigh Valley man died from the injuries he suffered during a car accident over three decades ago.

James Koplik, 53, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was struck by a vehicle approximately 35 years ago in New York State. Koplik died at the Lehigh Valley Hospital, Muhlenberg on Saturday at 11:19 a.m. from complications of the injuries he received from the accident, according to the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office.

Officials have not revealed the specific injuries he suffered.

The Coroner’s Office is currently searching for the next of kin for Koplik. Anyone with information on his family should call the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office at 610-782-3426.
 

A woman surrendered to police after a barricade situation inside a home in Plumstead Township, Pennsylvania.

Police received reports of a woman barricaded inside a home on the 4700 block of River Road Sunday night. The Intelligencer reports the woman didn't give any direct threats to harm anyone but herself.

Route 32 was closed between Fleecydale and Ferry roads after police responded to the scene.

The woman surrendered to police after about two hours. No one was injured during the incident.

Witnesses said at least one person had to jump from a second-floor window to escape intense flames at an apartment fire in East Windsor, New Jersey Monday morning.

The fire broke out after 2:30 at a unit on the second floor at Windsor Castle Apartments along Devonshire Drive in Mercer County.

The roaring flames were caught on cellphone video by resident Anthony Miles. The video showed flames engulfing the building.

A firefighter was treated for an injured foot on scene, according to fire officials. 

Sixteen apartment units were affected by the fire and 8 were destroyed, leaving 20 people displaced, officials said.

The American Red Cross was on scene assisting those displaced by the fire.

Investigators were looking into the cause of the blaze.

Here are the 10 things you need to know to start your day from your friends at NBC10.

TODAY'S TOP STORY

1 Killed in Mother's Day Fire: A person was killed in a Delaware house fire on Mother's Day, officials said. Firefighters observed flames shooting from a one-story home on the 1900 block of Reynolds Road around 10:30 a.m. when they arrived. The fire was under control by 12:30 p.m. One person was found dead inside the home while five other occupants were hurt, officials said.

• MORE ON THE DELAWARE HOUSE FIRE
  

A muggy Monday with high humid is expected with a chance of afternoon thunder showers. Temperatures are expected to stay in the 80s. Tuesday will be a hot one with temperatures hitting 90 degrees. High temp: 85 degrees. Get your full NBC10 First Alert forecast here.

WHAT YOU MISSED YESTERDAY

Young Filmmaker Struck, Killed While Riding Bike: A 26-year-old Philadelphia filmmaker was killed when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle early Sunday. Jay Mohan, a Chicago native and Temple University grad, created movies and helped others showcase theirs. He worked at film festivals and offered budding artists access to the airways through his job at PhillyCam, the city's public media station. He was riding home from a Society Hill movie theater when he was hit by a Buick at the intersection of Ridge and Girard avenues. The driver remained at the scene and Mohan was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

• MORE ON THE FILMMAKER
  

AROUND THE WORLD

Jimmy Carter Unwell: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter cut short an election observation visit in Guyana due to health reasons, Carter Center officials said. The 90-year-old former president was returning to Atlanta, a Sunday statement from the Center read. It did not disclose specifics, only saying Carter was "not feeling well."

• MORE ON CARTER'S TRIP
  

Jordan Hicks Practices with Eagles: Hicks says he wants to live up the expectations of the Eagles organization and knows it holds a high standard of excellence. The linebacker and University of Texas alum says he tries to always be a leader on the field. Get your full sports news at CSNPhilly.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

See more Top News Photos here.

THROUGH IGER'S EYES

@uaphilly snapped this cool photo of excited theater goers ready to see Kinky Boots at the Forrest Theatre recently.

Have an awesome Instagram photo you'd like to share? Tag it with #NBC10Buzz.

TODAY'S VIRAL VIDEO

Britain's tiniest dog, Disney, is a pocket-sized chihuahua that stands at 3 inches tall and weighs 14 ounces. Watch the video here.

Woman Killed in 1832 Begins Journey Home: The remains of an Irish woman, who was murdered at the Duffy’s Cut work site in Pennsylvania in 1832, will be returned to her native Co. Tyrone for commemoration and burial. In 1832, Catherine Burns, a widow at the age of 29, immigrated to America with her father-in-law, laborer John Burns, on board the ship John Stamp. After two trying months at sea, they arrived in Philadelphia on June 23, 1832 only to disappear from historic record eight weeks later. The Duffy’s Cut Project, founded in 2002, has worked to excavate the site, identify any remains, determine the causes of death, and secure funding for the project’s continued work. Thanks to funds raised by the project coordinators and the Philadelphia Irish community, Burns' remains will be buried with a full funeral mass in July at the Clonoe parish, near Coalisland, Tyrone, Ireland. Find more on the Duffy Cut Project here.

That's what you need to know. We've got more stories worthy of your time in the Breakfast Buzz section. Click here to check them out.