A coach bus crashed into a bank in the city of Orange in New Jersey Wednesday, hitting a pedestrian along the way, an official says.
Witnesses said the Coach USA commuter bus was traveling east on Main Street when it got into an accident with a gray Altima, sending the bus careening into a Bank of America branch.
The bus also hit a pedestrian standing on the sidewalk, and he ended up across the street, partially under a parked car, witnesses said.
No on inside the bank was hurt. and there were no passengers on board the bus at the time of the crash, officials said.
The 77-year-old bus driver and the 39-year-old Altima driver were taken to the hospital. The pedestrian who bore the force of the crash, a 34-year-old man from New York City, is very critically injured, officials said.
A spokesman for Coach USA, which operates the bus, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Two months ago, Annie Fleming-Alston jolted awake from the most gut-wrenching of nightmares: The 54-year-old mother of two adult daughters dreamt that someone killed her younger daughter.
On Sunday morning, the mother's worst nightmare came true: Her younger daughter, 25-year-old DeeAnna Riddle, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head inside her North Philadelphia apartment. Riddle's father, who lives in the first-floor apartment below his daughter's second-floor unit on Lehigh Avenue near 16th Street, went upstairs to check on her when he noticed she was running late for her 7 a.m. shift as a home mental-health caretaker and found her unconscious and cold in her bed. He dialed 9-1-1 before he attempted to give her CPR and realized she had a gaping wound in the back of her head.
Riddle, a mother of two young girls, was pronounced dead there a short time later.
"Just like I carried my baby in my womb, I know what happened to her," Fleming-Alston said Wednesday as she sat in the dimly lit dining room of her Logan home, surrounded by portraits of her beloved daughter.
"I always told her, 'Please be careful,'" the heartbroken mother said, the sadness heavy in her dark eyes. "I feel so bad in my heart. I feel like I could have done more."
Riddle leaves behind two young daughters -- Zekiyah, who turns 4 next month, and Zeqouya, 8. She also leaves behind an older sister, Tiffany Fleming, 29, and dozens of relatives.
The last time she talked to her mother was Saturday night, when she told her she was coming to join her at a Fourth of July barbecue. That was about 10:30 p.m., Fleming-Alston said. Her daughter never made it to the barbecue.
"Ever since my baby died, I've been hot," Fleming-Alston said, fanning herself as she sat wearing an orange patterned dress, the hum of the air conditioner in the background. "I know it's my nerves."
Police have not released an official motive or suspect in Riddle's senseless killing, but detectives said they're exploring the possibility that it is a domestic homicide. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon, as Riddle's devastated relatives packed her mother's porched rowhouse on Hutchinson Street near Ruscomb, planning a Wednesday evening vigil and a funeral.
Fleming-Alston said her daughter was taking classes working toward a nursing degree, and that she worked hard and "spent every dollar" on her little girls, decking them out in designer duds.
"My daughter was a remarkable young woman," the mother said in her dimly lit dining room, showing a portrait of her daughter as a smiling baby wearing a pink dress. "When she walks in a room, she lights it up."
Riddle's death has destroyed her father, who kept her close even as a young adult, allowing her to live in the apartment above his. Fleming-Alston said he is devastated that among the noise of Fourth of July celebrations Saturday night, he didn't hear the gunshot that killed his little girl -- or what preceded it.
"Her dad is a mess. He's torn up," she said.
Riddle's daughters have been staying with their father since their mother's death and were with him at the time she was killed. Fleming-Alston said the girls would usually spend weekends with their dad and weekdays with their mom, when she would often watch them for her daughter while Riddle went to work and did her schoolwork. She said the little girls have been strong in the face of their mother's killing.
"I always sit down the oldest one and explain things to her. I told her, 'Remember when I said I'm all you got? Well now I'm really all you got,'" she said, adding that she plans to get the little girls counseling.
"I don't want them later in life to have resentment," the woman said quietly.
Relatives and friends plan to hold a vigil for Riddle at the schoolyard on the corner of Hutchinson and Ruscomb at 7:30 Wednesday night, Fleming-Alston said.
As for whoever killed the beloved young woman, she wants quick justice.
"I want him so bad," the mother said. "She didn't deserve this."
For now, as she plans her daughter's funeral, Fleming-Alston said her two little granddaughters are what's getting her through the unimaginable heartbreak. She'll step in as their mother now, and plans to have them stay with her during the weeks, when they would normally stay with their mother.
"I'm gonna keep them," Fleming-Alston said. "If I have my girls, I can get through it, because when I look at them, I see my daughter."
Over a dozen cats have been rescued from a Northeast Philadelphia house by the Pennsylvania SPCA.
The PSCPA announced in a release Wednesday afternoon that it rescued 13 cats from a home in the Summerdale neighborhood of Philadelphia after numerous alleged violations including unsanitary confinement.
Humane Law Enforcement officers responded to a tip received on its PSCPA Cruelty hotline, Humane Law Enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Unruh and Summerdale streets. They found 10 adult cats and three kittens living in filthy conditions with trash and feces littered throughout the home.
The cats were transported to the Pennsylvania SPCA headquarters on Erie Avenue and have been released after further evaluation.
"Every animal deserves a clean and sanitary environment," said Pennsylvania SPCA CEO Jerry Buckley. "Hoarding is a serious issue that we deal with regularly. In addition to our law enforcement function, we are also committed to addressing animal hoarding through our outreach and education programs."
The investigation is ongoing and could result in charges being filed.
To report animal abuse, call the Pennsylvania SPCA's cruelty hotline at 1-(866)-601-SPCA.
An animal rights group released a video of what they say is undercover footage of animal abuse at a Delaware farm.
The hidden-camera video, released by Mercy for Animals, shows chickens at McGinnis Farms in Dagsboro, Delaware, which is a contract farm with Tyson Foods.
An MFA spokesperson says the video shows workers breaking the animals’ necks and cramming hundreds of thousands of birds into “filthy, windowless sheds” where they are “forced to live for weeks in their own waste and toxic ammonia fumes.” The group also accuses the workers of throwing the chickens to the ground from transport crates causing them to suffer broken bones and other injuries.
“Tyson Foods is literally torturing chickens to death,” said MFA’s president, Nathan Runkle. “They are crammed into filthy, windowless sheds, thrown, kicked, and brutalized by careless workers, and bred to grow so fast they suffer from painful leg deformities and heart attacks. This is sickening animal abuse no company with morals should support. Tyson Foods has not only the power, but also the ethical responsibility to end the worst forms of cruelty to animals in its supply chain.”
The group says they want Tyson foods to “implement meaningful animal welfare requirements for all of its company-owned and contract farms and slaughterhouses.”
NBC10 reached out to a Tyson Foods official. He responded with the following statement:
Animal well-being is a top priority for us. We do not tolerate improper animal treatment and take claims of animal abuse very seriously.
Proper animal handling is extremely important to us and is why we have programs and policies in place to protect the health and well-being of all our animals. This includes the Tyson FarmCheck™ program that involves third-party auditors who check on the farm for such things as animal access to food and water, human-animal interaction and worker training.
A man died from his injuries following a shooting in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city.
The 24-year-old man was on 26th and Cambria streets Wednesday night when an unidentified gunman opened fire. The victim was struck at least once in the chest. He was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Police have not yet released the man's identity. They continue to investigate.
A man and a woman were hospitalized after a shooting in the Frankford section of the city.
The victims were on the 4600 block of Hedge Street when an unidentified gunman opened fire. Both victims were struck at least once and were taken to the hospital by police. Officials have not yet released their conditions.
No arrests have been made.
Police are searching for the person or people responsible for stealing a Delaware man’s Confederate flag and vandalizing his property.
Barry Binkley Jr. of Newark, Delaware told NBC10 a vandal or vandals went to his home on Frazer Road Tuesday and took his Confederate Flag, which flew for years from a flag pole in his yard.
“They cut it, and then the flag dropped, and they took it,” Binkley said.
Binkley also says the vandals broke out the front window of his truck and spray painted his boat with profane graffiti while accusing him of being a racist.
“Why me?” Binkley asked. “What did I do wrong?”
Binkley believes he was targeted for displaying the flag. He also has a Confederate flag wind screen on the side of his garage which he took down Wednesday night as well as a Confederate flag handkerchief. Binkley says that for him the flag symbolizes southern history and pride rather than racism.
“It’s my freedom to hang what flag I want to fly,” he said. “You can hang yours in your yard. I can hang mine in mine.”
The vandalism comes in the midst of a national debate over the Confederate flag as well as a push to remove it from the Statehouse grounds in South Carolina following a shooting in a historic black church in which nine African Americans were killed.
The suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof, who is white, appeared in photos waving Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags and purportedly wrote about carrying out racial violence. Survivors of the church shooting told police he hurled racial insults during the attack.
Police told NBC10 they have no leads in Binkley’s case and are not considering it a hate crime since no racial slurs were used. Binkley meanwhile said he plans on flying another Confederate flag at his home.
“Will there be another one flying? Damn sure there will be,” he said.
Binkley also said however he’s willing to listen to anyone who is offended by his display.
Severe storms are set to strike the region late Thursday afternoon into the night .
The NBC10 First Alert Weather team issued a First Alert Thursday as they tracked the potentially severe weather that could bring damaging winds and possibly tornadoes later Thursday, according to meteorologist Bill Henley.
Before the worst weather strikes, some showers moved in from the west Thursday morning. The real storm threat will begin around 5 p.m. as a system approaches from the west.
The evening storms have the potential to bring high winds, lightning, heavy rain and hail to most of the region until the system moves offshore around 10 p.m. Along with the stormy weather, Thursday will also be humid with highs near 90 degrees.
The rain will clear overnight and the humidity will drop Friday. Friday will be sunny and comfortable with highs in the mid-80’s. The weekend will also be sunny with highs around 90 degrees. The thunderstorms will then return to the region Monday.
Check back with the NBC10 App and the NBC10 First Alert Weather Team for more updates as the storms approach.
A New Jersey company is recalling 30,200 pounds of grated Parmesan cheese because it may contain undeclared egg allergen.
Arthur Schuman Inc., which is based in Fairfield, is recalling its Bella Rosa Grated Parmesan cheese because the ingredient could cause a serious or life threatening allergic reaction to those with egg allergies or sensitivities, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The cheese, which is sold exclusively at BJ’s Wholesale Clubs, is distributed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Ohio.
Products that contain the undeclared allergen will have one of the following sell by dates: July 13, 2015, August 17, 2015 and September 10, 2015. The cheese is sold in 1.25-pound jars with sell by dates printed on the side of the jar just below the lid and will contain product code 088231410041.
No illnesses have been reported.
Customers who have bought Bella Rosa Parmesan cheese can return it to any BJ’s Wholesale Club for a full refund. Any questions can be directed to Arthur Schuman at 973-787-8840.
