A grand jury in South Jersey has indicted a man on murder charges in a November shooting that left a convenience store clerk dead.
Eramus Canty is accused of shooting Matthew Mwinsori, 32, to death as Mwinsori worked his job at the Quick N Go store on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Marshal Lane in Willingboro, Burlington County.
Mwinsori had just started working at the store a few weeks before his murder. Before that, he was a clerk at another convenience store across the street.
A native of Ghana, where he was a military officer, Mwinsori came to the United States about five years ago, friends told NBC10. He leaves behind a 9-year-old daughter still living in his homeland.
"He never did something wrong to anyone so I don't know why this happened," friend Thomas Koffi said after his killing. He hired Mwinsori for his old job.
A squabble over money is playing out in court now and threatening a multi-million-dollar Philly cheesesteak empire.
Tony Luke’s is at the center of the battle. Family members have filed mutual lawsuits, each claiming the other is in the wrong. The legal fight is over franchising issues. Tony Lucidonio Jr., known better as “Tony Jr.,” who has long since been the face of the operation and runs a number of Tony Luke’s franchises through separate agreements, is being accused by his father and brother of breaching contracts and owing them more than $3 million.
Legal issues related to the suits could potentially threaten the famous cheesesteak shop.
Tony Jr. expressed his regret over the lawsuits – and the fact that the feud is playing out publicly. He told NBC10’s Deanna Durante he was devastated by the suits and thanked customers for standing by him and his family.
In an emailed statement, Paul Rosen, an attorney for Tony Jr., said they don't understand "why Tony Luke Sr. is having any issue of making more money than he ever made before."
Rosen continued to say that the suit is "a result of pure greed and ego" and that Tony Sr. has made millions of dollars off Tony Luke's.
Customers who stopped by Tony Luke’s flagship shop at Front Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philly today said they’d stay loyal to the Philly mainstay regardless of the outcome.
A man is dead after a shooting in Philadelphia's West Oak Lane neighborhood Thursday night.
Police said shots rang out about 8:45 p.m. on Mayland Road near 75th Avenue. The victim, a 29-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of the head, according to officers.
Medics pronounced the man dead on the street at 9 p.m.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said the victim was still holding Chinese food when he was shot, and investigators are looking into the possibility he may have been killed in a robbery. The victim's identity has not been released.
A woman working at a South Philadelphia restaurant died after police say someone slashed her throat inside the basement of the open eatery Thursday night.
Philadelphia Police were called to Lee's Cafe and Bistro on Washington Avenue near 5th Street just after 9 p.m. to find the 54-year-old woman beaten and bloodied in the basement, which serves as the kitchen of the Vietnamese restaurant.
"She had a deep cut to her neck and she was pronounced dead," said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small outside the restaurant as investigator searched for clues inside.
There were signs of a violent struggle.
"There is a lot of blood next to her body, there is some overturned kitchen equipment -- a piece of kitchen equipment is actually laying on her body," said Small. "In addition to her throat being slashed, she also has some facial injuries."
Police found the woman's body about an hour before Lee's Cafe closes at 10 p.m. There were four other employees and about five customers inside the eatery that features take out on the ground floor and sit-down tables on the second floor when officers arrived, said Small.
Police interviewed the witnesses and looked for surveillance video from outside the restaurant in hopes of tracking down the woman's killer.
The eatery is well-received n Yelp, getting four out of five stars.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Philly Police.
Police are looking for whoever shot a dog in the head with a BB gun, lodging the copper pellet in the pooch's head.
The dog, Sergeant, was shot in the head with the BB gun outside his home in Kingwood, near the Pennsylvania border, sometime before Feb. 12, according to the New Jersey State Police.
The dog's owner was grooming him that day when she noticed a lump on his head. Afterward, she parted his hair and found the BB lodged in his skin.
Detectives investigating the case think that someone with access to her home in the rural corner of northwestern New Jersey might be responsible.
Anyone with information should call the state police in Kingwood at 908-996-2864.
A day after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney revealed his ambitious $4.17 billion budget, the first-term Democrat planned to take questions from his constituents.
Kenney asked for people to tweet their questions with the #AskKenny hashtag.
Kenney planned to begin answering questions in a live Twitter chat (@PhillyMayor) starting at 4 p.m.
Part of Kenney's plans for Philadelphia includes universal pre-K and a sugary beverage tax.
How much snow fell where you live?
The National Weather Service has been updating snow totals for several locations around our area after a storm dropped more than half a foot of snow along the Jersey Shore.
Here are totals (in inches) by county for each state as of Friday morning:
NEW JERSEY:
Atlantic County
Atlantic City International Airport - 1.3
Estell Manor - 5.0
Galloway Township - 3.3
Somers Point - 4.0
Burlington County
Evesham - 1.9
Florence - 0.8
Medford - 1.0
Mount Holly - 1.4
Mount Laurel - 2.2
Moorestown Township - 2.0
Tabernacle Township - 2.0
Camden County
Gloucester City - 1.0
Haddon Heights - 2.0
Lindenwold - 2.7
Cape May County
Cape May - 6.5
Cape May Court House - 5.0
Green Creek - 6.3
Rio Grande - 2.0
Sea Isle City - 3.6
Wildwood Crest - 3.0
Woodbine - 3.0
Cumberland County
Millville - 2.0
Gloucester County
Deptford Township - 2.0
Pitman - 1.8
Williamstown - 3.0
Mercer County
Ewing - 1.9
Hightstown - 2.1
Hopewell Township - 1.5
Lawrence Township - 1.6
Ocean County
Barnegat Township - 1.2
Berkeley Township - 3.3
Brick Township - 3.0
Toms River - 2.3
Whiting - 3.5
Salem County
Salem - 2.9
Pennsville Township - 2.5
DELAWARE:
Kent County
Dover - 2.8
Felton - 3.0
Harrington - 2.7
Milford - 4.5
Woodside - 2.0
New Castle County
Blackbird - 1.2
Glasgow - 3.0
New Castle County Airport - 2.5
Newark - 2.8
Odessa - 3.8
Port Penn - 2.0
Sussex County
Delmar - 5.0
Milton - 5.8
Laurel - 4.0
Lewes - 2.5
W Seaford - 3.8
Selbyville - 5.0
PENNSYLVANIA:
Berks County
Fleetwood - 1.0
Reading - 1.1
Mohnton - 1.6
Bucks County
Morrisville - 1.6
Penndel - 1.0
Chester County
Atglen - 1.3
Nottingham - 1.4
West Caln Township - 1.8
West Chester - 0.5
Delaware County
Wayne - 1.2
Lehigh County
Lehigh Valley International Airport - 0.3
Montgomery County
Blue Bell - 1.0
Eagleville - 1.1
Limerick - 0.5
Norristown - 1.0
Wyncote - 0.9
Northampton County
Martins Creek - 0.3
Philadelphia County
Northeast Philly - 1.0
Philadelphia International Airport - 0.6
Somerton - 0.3
Poconos
Mount Pocono - 0.4
Pocono Summit - 0.6
Editor's Note: The details in this story are graphic and may be disturbing to some readers.
A month after hazing allegations came to light at a Chester County, Pennsylvania, high school, the district attorney announced charges against three football players accused of sodomizing a younger teammate with a broomstick.
"This is a simple case about ignorance, violence and a shocking lack of supervision," said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan.
Hogan announced the charges at a news conference Friday while discussing hazing allegations against football players at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. The boys were not identified since they are minors. Hogan said the investigation goes back three or four years.
"If you call this hazing or you call this assault, what we are really talking about here is bigger, stronger kids picking on smaller, weaker kids — this is just bullying and in Chester County. We won't stand for bullying," said Hogan.
Older boys are accused of putting their genitals on younger boys' heads, and on Oct. 15, three 17-year-olds allegedly forced a broomstick into the anus of a younger, smaller boy.
It happened after the younger player opted out of cleaning the locker room in his underwear, authorities said. When the boy tried to leave, an upperclassman told teammates, "stick a broom up his a--," according to Hogan.
Two boys — one weighing around 280 pounds — held the younger player down while a senior began poking him between his legs, said Hogan. Some of the players said the victim was a outcast who was unpopular among the players.
The incident occurred on what's known among students as "No Gay Thursday," when older players allegedly commit "gay" acts upon younger ones as part of a hazing tradition, according to Hogan. Although the case centers around the football team, Hogan said other student-athletes were either exposed to or involved in hazing incidents.
Students said coaches were unaware of the alleged sodomy, which came to light after the boy's father learned what had happened and contacted police last month. Coaches told investigators they had no knowledge of "No Gay Thursday."
Hogan held the coaches responsible for leaving the teens alone in the locker room.
"All this happened under the noses of the coaches because they were not there to supervise these students and let this happen by not paying attention," Hogan said.
The school, which has been cooperating with investigators, addressed the allegations in a news release Friday, promising to make its internal investigation a top priority.
"We feel strongly that all athletes must be able to participate in team activities in an environment free from hazing," said Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Gusick. "District policies and school rules have been in place to reinforce tolerance and respect. Each season, our Athletic Director emphasizes the expectations for conduct, including no tolerance for hazing, by meeting with all coaches and all teams. Traditionally our athletes have demonstrated high standards of sportsmanship and conduct on and off the field.
"In light of the information shared by the police about the football program, we will conduct a thorough school-based investigation. The process will be designed to determine whether or not code of conduct violations occurred, the awareness and level of supervision provided by the coaching staff, and what further measures can promote inclusive and respectful behavior," Gusick continued.
The latest allegations come only a few months after a middle school sexting scandal rocked the district. At least one student was charged with sending sexually explicit images earlier in the school year.
Several New Jersey schools received bomb threats Friday, one week after five high schools in the Garden State were evacuated because of similar threats.
Eleven schools in Passaic, Bergen and Essex counties received threats Friday morning, but authorities said that all the schools were deemed safe at about 1 p.m.
The schools that received threats were in Englewood,
Paramus, Teaneck, Cliffside Park, Mahwah,Waldwick, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Ramsey, Haledon, Nutley and Oradell, authorities said. The majority of the threats were phoned in, police said.Students at Fort Lee High School were moved to a safe off-site shelter for a time, authorities said. Students at the other schools took shelter in their classrooms.
"I don't know why I went to school today," said Fort Lee High School senior Hannah Cheng. "I should have just stayed home."
It's unclear if the threats were a coordinated effort, or if they were related to similar threats Friday in northern Virginia and Hartford, Connecticut.
Last week, Teaneck, Bergenfield, Waldwich, Mahawah and Hackensack high schools all received threats.
"Swatting seems to be a pastime, and I use that term loosely, to cause havoc," one police officer who responded to Hackensack High School told NBC 4 New York last week.
He added, "It's very time consuming."
