A person died from her injuries following a crash on the Schuylkill Expressway Tuesday afternoon.

A truck and another vehicle collided in the westbound lanes of I-76 near the Route 1 exit around 2 p.m.

A female victim and at least one other person were injured in the crash and taken to Presbyterian Hospital. The female victim, who has not yet been identified, later died from her injuries. Officials have not yet revealed the other victim's condition or the cause of the crash.

The exit to Route 1 remains shut down due to the accident. Traffic is currently backed up in the area.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
 

Friends and family are mourning a man who police say died while protecting a woman and her baby from an attacker armed with a knife in Wilmington, Delaware.

Police say Calvin Hooker III, 25, of Wilmington, confronted a 21-year-old woman who was walking on 10th and North Walnut streets Monday night with her baby girl in a stroller. Hooker made a reference to a stolen phone and continued to follow the woman as she walked west on 10th Street, police said. Hooker then allegedly took out a large knife and chased after the woman as she ran around a bus stop. The woman then tried to enter a nearby DART bus with her baby to escape, according to investigators.

As Hooker pursued her, 27-year-old Thomas Cottingham of Wilmington intervened and tried to stop him, police said. Hooker then allegedly stabbed Cottingham in the back. Officials say Cottingham managed to get away and then collapsed to the ground. Hooker allegedly followed Cottingham and stabbed him several more times in the upper torso before fleeing the scene on foot. Cottingham was taken to Christiana Hospital where he died from his injuries.

Responding police officers spotted Hooker trying to enter another DART bus, officials said. The officers demanded that Hooker drop the knife but he refused and ran south on the 800 block of North Market Street into an alley, according to investigators. More responding officers then used an Electronic Control Device which struck Hooker, causing him to drop the knife and fall to the ground, police said. He was then placed into custody.

Police determined the attack was random in nature and say Hooker didn’t know the woman or Cottingham. Hooker was arrested and charged with murder, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, aggravated menacing, endangering the welfare of a child and other related offenses. He is currently being held without bail and will be committed to the Howard Young Correctional Facility.

Cottingham, known to his friends as “Cannibal,” was a popular skateboarder and rapper in Wilmington known to frequent the Rodney Square area, where the attack took place. Both police and loved ones called him a hero who sacrificed his life for a stranger. 

“From what I understand he didn’t know the woman,” said Cottingham’s friend Alicia Waters. “He was just doing the right thing.”

Several high school friends put up balloons in Cottingham’s honor Tuesday afternoon.

“He genuinely was a good person,” said Jessica Hitchens while in tears. “It’s another friend from high school being buried over the same crap out here. I hate this city. I just hate it.”

Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams also released a statement on Cottingham’s death.

“I give my condolences to both the family and loved ones of Thomas Cottingham, and pray they find solace and strength in knowing he was a hero, as he bravely risked his life to protect a fellow citizen,” he wrote. “I, like the entire City, am outraged by this senseless act of violence. Through the increased presence of uniformed police officers with the department’s downtown deployment and Downtown Visions security, the City works diligently to ensure the safety of Wilmington’s downtown community. However, we must work even harder to make certain that tragedies, such as this, never happen again.”

The system designed to track the number of Pennsylvania schoolchildren immunized against contagious diseases like measles and pertussis is flawed, state health officials admit.

The revelation, as well as current immunization policies, puts public health officials at a disadvantage when trying to identify potential weaknesses in disease immunity and, more importantly, leave children with illnesses or who are unable to be vaccinated at a greater risk of becoming sick, an infectious disease physician and parents say.

"The school laws are the linchpin,” said Dr. Sarah Long, who leads the Infectious Disease section at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

"I think that this points out that we're in a very uncomfortable position that we don't know what our immunization rates are in Pennsylvania, from this," she said.

Commonwealth law requires children be vaccinated against eight diseases including measles, mumps and chickenpox before attending kindergarten. Adolescents entering 7th grade must get shots for meningococcal, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Children should get a minimum of 33 doses of vaccines by the time they leave middle school, according to government recommended immunization schedules.

Each year, schools across the state collect immunization records from children in those two grade levels. Parents are asked to fill out a form listing what immunizations a child has received and when. Once returned to the school, the data is entered into a state database which calculates immunization rates within schools and districts. The records are due by October 15 of every year.

NBC10 requested data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and was provided figures from the 2013-2014 year for 495 school districts statewide. Districts with less than 20 students in a grade level were excluded for privacy concerns.

At our request, Dr. Long, a former chair of the American Board of Pediatrics and editor of the organization's "Red Book" infectious disease report who has worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a physician for decades, reviewed the information. She questioned its validity after finding vaccination rates to be abnormally low or high for certain districts.

"Some of it is just not believable," Long said. "For instance, when somebody here said that 100 percent of their students received TD, which is tetanus and diphtheria, that would be outrageous."

Eight school districts of varying sizes statewide, including Salisbury Township School District in Lehigh County, said 100 percent of their children had been given such a shot, according to the data.

It would be more likely that less than 1 percent of students would have been given the TD vaccine because it is typically given as a booster shot after a child has already received TDAP vaccine, Long said.

Other more glaring examples were discovered, as well.

None of the 120 7th grade students at Kutztown Middle School in Berks County were immunized against a number of diseases like polio, hepatitis B and varicella, according to the data. Thirteen kids did get the TDAP vaccine, though.

"That's not the case. Our nurses have very thorough and complete records. I'm sorry that the state records are wrong," Kutztown Area School District Superintendent Katherine Metrick told NBC10.

Kutztown school nurses do enter immunization records into the state database and are "very practiced," Metrick said.

At Jenkintown Middle/High School in Montgomery County, all 116 students in 7th grade were exempt from getting vaccines based on either medical or religious grounds, the data showed. However, all but two students had gotten all the mandated immunizations.

The Department of Health later revised the number saying it was a mistake. A spokesman eventually said the agency became aware with problems in the reporting earlier this year while trying to determine measles immunization rates after a case cropped up.

“Basically, it’s child abuse"

Pennsylvania has the second lowest immunization rate against measles nationwide at 85 percent, according to data collected by the CDC. Doctors strive for a rate of 95 percent or higher to keep the easily spread infection — that can lead to blindness, hearing loss and death in severe cases — at bay.

"Measles is so contagious. So for every case, 12 to 18 cases will occur from that case if they're not immunized," Long said.

Statistics like that worry Bucks County father Michael Kraft. The 38-year-old and his wife Jackie delayed giving their son Joseph the MMR vaccine over Autism fears — a common, but scientifically disproven argument used by parents skeptical of immunizations.

"We thought, at the time, why am I giving my son a shot when there hasn't been any measles in years," he recalled. Joseph was given shot around 18-months, instead of the recommended age of 12-months, he said.

Fast-forward two years, Kraft said, doctors diagnosed Joseph with a high-functioning form of Autism. "Looking back, it was a waste of time," he said.

With measles on the rise nationally as of late — some 159 people diagnosed in the first four months of the year and 668 cases in 2014, the CDC found — Kraft won’t delay when it comes time to have his 1-month-old son, Justin, vaccinated.

"We do not want to wait for any vaccine that could potentially prevent him from getting sick," he said. Justin can't begin getting the vaccine until he's around 12-months-old for it to be most effective. Until then, he will be unguarded from the disease.

"Infants between 6- and-12-months are vulnerable in the United States right now. All infants. That is a lot of susceptible little babies," Long said, who adds that a child doesn't need to be in school to catch the disease.

Infants aren't the only children at risk. No vaccine is 100 percent effective so doctors strive to achieve herd immunity -- when most of a particular population is protected against a disease -- to limit outbreaks among vulenerable people whose bodies did not respond to the immunization. The more people protected, the less chance it will be spread.

That high community immunity also helps older kids who are unable to be vaccinated or forced to get a less effective shot because of a chronic medical condition or battle with a disease like cancer.

Lauren Kuerschner is one of those children. The 13-year-old Collegeville middle schooler suffers from severe asthma and has an immune deficiency. She has been vaccinated, but was given a less-effective type that introduced a dead virus to her system. Most people are given a live virus to build a better immunity.

"If she gets whooping cough, it could kill her," the girl's mother, Julie Kuerschner explained.

The 53-year-old mother of three says she feels helpless, at times, worrying about Lauren getting sick from another child, and has kept her home from school as a precaution.

"We are very, probably overprotective of her, and I keep her home from school a lot. In fact, I debated home schooling Lauren by myself, but she really loves going to school and interacting with the other kids," she said.

"It's not fair for her," she added.

Kuerschner is frustrated that parents choose not to vaccinate their children based on "debunked" myths about links to Autism and other disorders.

"In my opinion, any child goes to the public school system should be required to be immunized,” she said.

Kraft agrees, though has a more pointed point-of-view.

“Basically, it’s child abuse if you’re not going to get your child immunized," he said.

Philosophical Differences

Children can be exempt from getting vaccinations for three reasons in Pennsylvania — medical concerns, religious concerns and philosophical differences. The latter is currently under siege by state lawmakers.

Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that allow parents to opt their child out of the required immunizations based on personal objection to the practice. A parental signature on an immunization document provided to a school is all that’s needed to bypass the state requirement. It’s at the school’s discretion whether to accept it.

It’s an option that is vital to ensuring parents have control over their child’s health says Diane Soucy.

The 44-year-old Hatboro, Montgomery County mother says she chose to put two of her three sons on a delayed vaccination schedule — something she says she could not have done without the philosophical exemption.

"I think it's important to say that I'm not against vaccines,” she said. "I decided to put my children on a delayed schedule. Maybe waiting six months before they get the first dose, just to give them a chance to grow and adjust."

Soucy, whose youngest son, 12-year-old Matthew, has Autism, began delaying the vaccinations while doing research about his developmental diagnosis. She voiced concerns about ingredients used in the vaccines and worries about a lack of training by doctors. Soucy chose not to give her sons the flu shot and said her 13-year-old boy Marcus would not be getting vaccinated for human papilloma virus or HPV at this time.

"I'm not going to be bullied by my government. I'm not going to be bullied by my pediatrician,” she said. "It's the same way that I cannot allow my child to have McDonald's everyday followed by cheesecake and pie, I will choose what is introduced into their body and when."

But vaccine advocates like Dr. Long and lawmakers in both the Pennsylvania House and Senate feel the exemption is simply a loophole that could put children and the public in danger.

A gaggle of local state representatives led by Chester County Rep. Becky Corbin (R-155) have sponsored House Bill 883 that would remove the philosophical exemption. It would also require parents seeking a religious exemption seek out advice and a signature from a physician and be provided with risk factors for not being immunized before it could be granted. The bill was referred to the House Subcommittee on Health this week.

State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17) plans to introduce similar legislation in the state senate. He told NBC10 in February that the exemption is “unusual."

Asked whether Gov. Tom Wolf’s Administration would support the removal of the philosophical exemption, a health department spokeswoman would only say they would like to have all school children properly immunized.

Fixing the System

Having incorrect or incomplete data means the loss of time and money when it comes to responding to an outbreak says Dr. Long, the infectious disease expert.

"It's horribly handicapping for them,” she said of health workers. “They have to devote so many resources and you have to follow every child, every person they came in contact with. Then you have to verify that they’re not infected."

On the money front, Long cited a paper in the journal Vaccine that found the investigation of 16 measles outbreaks in 2011 that resulted in 107 confirmed cases cost health agencies between $2.1 and $5.6 million.

"It would be a huge help — A: if children in schools were immunized and if the records were accurate and that you made it harder for people to be exempt so that you have your ducks in the row. And then you will have your catastrophes and you’ll address them,” Long said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it is working to address current lapses in the immunization surveillance database. Amy Worden, Communications Director for the agency, said the Wolf Administration inherited the problem from its predecessor and that it is striving to fix the system.

The Health Department along with the Department of Education plans to offer training for school staff members who are collecting and entering the data into the state database. Worden said it’s up to schools to decide who is qualified to handle the complex data. In some schools it could be a nurse, in others, like Philadelphia where nurses do not serve a school everyday, a principal or secretary could be in charge of the task.

Both agencies will also stress the importance of ensuring the information is accurate, officials said.

A new validation policy has now gone into effect, officials say. Nurses on staff at the health department will review the data to look for problems. “When an outlier is identified, the Pa. Department of Health contacts the district to validate,” Worden said. She adds that the department is always looking to improve its practices.

Health officials plan to push for legislation that would remove an eight-month grace period that allows new students time to get up-to-date with their vaccinations. This delay keeps health officials from having the latest data at their disposal, they say.

While these may improve internal reporting, it is still difficult for a parent to ascertain the risk their child faces of being exposed to unvaccinated children at school. Julie Kuerschner says her daughters’ school would not tell her the vaccination status of other children citing privacy concerns.

But statistics could, and should, be published by schools each year just like crime, standardized testing performance and graduation rates, Long says.

"They should be required to publish or make public not only their exemption rates, but their immunization rates. And they should make them for parents who want to know whether to send to that school and then for donors and alums that what to be part of the safe school alliance,” she said.

The health department says there are no laws or regulations barring the release of such data, which can already be provided through an open records request. It shouldn't be that hard, however, Long says.

Passionate against the current surge in delayed and anti-vaccine movements, the doctor looks to another hot button health topic surrounding classrooms across the country — the peanut allergy — and wonders why some parents embrace one and not the other.

"Why not have this be as important as peanuts?"

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

A person is in the hospital after a motorcycle crash in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia early Tuesday evening.

A motorcycle and another vehicle were involved in a crash on Castor Avenue and Robbins Street. Police say the motorcyclist suffered serious injuries and was taken to the hospital. Officials have not yet revealed the victim’s condition or if anyone else was injured.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
 

The system designed to track the number of Pennsylvania schoolchildren immunized against contagious diseases like measles and pertussis is flawed, state health officials admit.

The revelation, as well as current immunization policies, puts public health officials at a disadvantage when trying to identify potential weaknesses in disease immunity and, more importantly, leave children with illnesses or who are unable to be vaccinated at a greater risk of becoming sick, an infectious disease physician and parents say.

"The school laws are the linchpin,” said Dr. Sarah Long, who leads the Infectious Disease section at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

"I think that this points out that we're in a very uncomfortable position that we don't know what our immunization rates are in Pennsylvania, from this," she said.

Commonwealth law requires children be vaccinated against eight diseases including measles, mumps and chickenpox before attending kindergarten. Adolescents entering 7th grade must get shots for meningococcal, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Children should get a minimum of 33 doses of vaccines by the time they leave middle school, according to government recommended immunization schedules.

Each year, schools across the state collect immunization records from children in those two grade levels. Parents are asked to fill out a form listing what immunizations a child has received and when. Once returned to the school, the data is entered into a state database which calculates immunization rates within schools and districts. The records are due by October 15 of every year.

NBC10 requested data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and was provided figures from the 2013-2014 year for 495 school districts statewide. Districts with less than 20 students in a grade level were excluded for privacy concerns.

At our request, Dr. Long, a former chair of the American Board of Pediatrics and editor of the organization's "Red Book" infectious disease report who has worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a physician for decades, reviewed the information. She questioned its validity after finding vaccination rates to be abnormally low or high for certain districts.

"Some of it is just not believable," Long said. "For instance, when somebody here said that 100 percent of their students received TD, which is tetanus and diphtheria, that would be outrageous."

Eight school districts of varying sizes statewide, including Salisbury Township School District in Lehigh County, said 100 percent of their children had been given such a shot, according to the data.

It would be more likely that less than 1 percent of students would have been given the TD vaccine because it is typically given as a booster shot after a child has already received TDAP vaccine, Long said.

Other more glaring examples were discovered, as well.

None of the 120 7th grade students at Kutztown Middle School in Berks County were immunized against a number of diseases like polio, hepatitis B and varicella, according to the data. Thirteen kids did get the TDAP vaccine, though.

"That's not the case. Our nurses have very thorough and complete records. I'm sorry that the state records are wrong," Kutztown Area School District Superintendent Katherine Metrick told NBC10.

Kutztown school nurses do enter immunization records into the state database and are "very practiced," Metrick said.

At Jenkintown Middle/High School in Montgomery County, all 116 students in 7th grade were exempt from getting vaccines based on either medical or religious grounds, the data showed. However, all but two students had gotten all the mandated immunizations.

The Department of Health later revised the number saying it was a mistake. A spokesman eventually said the agency became aware with problems in the reporting earlier this year while trying to determine measles immunization rates after a case cropped up.

“Basically, it’s child abuse"

Pennsylvania has the second lowest immunization rate against measles nationwide at 85 percent, according to data collected by the CDC. Doctors strive for a rate of 95 percent or higher to keep the easily spread infection — that can lead to blindness, hearing loss and death in severe cases — at bay.

"Measles is so contagious. So for every case, 12 to 18 cases will occur from that case if they're not immunized," Long said.

Statistics like that worry Bucks County father Michael Kraft. The 38-year-old and his wife Jackie delayed giving their son Joseph the MMR vaccine over Autism fears — a common, but scientifically disproven argument used by parents skeptical of immunizations.

"We thought, at the time, why am I giving my son a shot when there hasn't been any measles in years," he recalled. Joseph was given shot around 18-months, instead of the recommended age of 12-months, he said.

Fast-forward two years, Kraft said, doctors diagnosed Joseph with a high-functioning form of Autism. "Looking back, it was a waste of time," he said.

With measles on the rise nationally as of late — some 159 people diagnosed in the first four months of the year and 668 cases in 2014, the CDC found — Kraft won’t delay when it comes time to have his 1-month-old son, Justin, vaccinated.

"We do not want to wait for any vaccine that could potentially prevent him from getting sick," he said. Justin can't begin getting the vaccine until he's around 12-months-old for it to be most effective. Until then, he will be unguarded from the disease.

"Infants between 6- and-12-months are vulnerable in the United States right now. All infants. That is a lot of susceptible little babies," Long said, who adds that a child doesn't need to be in school to catch the disease.

Infants aren't the only children at risk. No vaccine is 100 percent effective so doctors strive to achieve herd immunity -- when most of a particular population is protected against a disease -- to limit outbreaks among vulenerable people whose bodies did not respond to the immunization. The more people protected, the less chance it will be spread.

That high community immunity also helps older kids who are unable to be vaccinated or forced to get a less effective shot because of a chronic medical condition or battle with a disease like cancer.

Lauren Kuerschner is one of those children. The 13-year-old Collegeville middle schooler suffers from severe asthma and has an immune deficiency. She has been vaccinated, but was given a less-effective type that introduced a dead virus to her system. Most people are given a live virus to build a better immunity.

"If she gets whooping cough, it could kill her," the girl's mother, Julie Kuerschner explained.

The 53-year-old mother of three says she feels helpless, at times, worrying about Lauren getting sick from another child, and has kept her home from school as a precaution.

"We are very, probably overprotective of her, and I keep her home from school a lot. In fact, I debated home schooling Lauren by myself, but she really loves going to school and interacting with the other kids," she said.

"It's not fair for her," she added.

Kuerschner is frustrated that parents choose not to vaccinate their children based on "debunked" myths about links to Autism and other disorders.

"In my opinion, any child goes to the public school system should be required to be immunized,” she said.

Kraft agrees, though has a more pointed point-of-view.

“Basically, it’s child abuse if you’re not going to get your child immunized," he said.

Philosophical Differences

Children can be exempt from getting vaccinations for three reasons in Pennsylvania — medical concerns, religious concerns and philosophical differences. The latter is currently under siege by state lawmakers.

Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that allow parents to opt their child out of the required immunizations based on personal objection to the practice. A parental signature on an immunization document provided to a school is all that’s needed to bypass the state requirement. It’s at the school’s discretion whether to accept it.

It’s an option that is vital to ensuring parents have control over their child’s health says Diane Soucy.

The 44-year-old Hatboro, Montgomery County mother says she chose to put two of her three sons on a delayed vaccination schedule — something she says she could not have done without the philosophical exemption.

"I think it's important to say that I'm not against vaccines,” she said. "I decided to put my children on a delayed schedule. Maybe waiting six months before they get the first dose, just to give them a chance to grow and adjust."

Soucy, whose youngest son, 12-year-old Matthew, has Autism, began delaying the vaccinations while doing research about his developmental diagnosis. She voiced concerns about ingredients used in the vaccines and worries about a lack of training by doctors. Soucy chose not to give her sons the flu shot and said her 13-year-old boy Marcus would not be getting vaccinated for human papilloma virus or HPV at this time.

"I'm not going to be bullied by my government. I'm not going to be bullied by my pediatrician,” she said. "It's the same way that I cannot allow my child to have McDonald's everyday followed by cheesecake and pie, I will choose what is introduced into their body and when."

But vaccine advocates like Dr. Long and lawmakers in both the Pennsylvania House and Senate feel the exemption is simply a loophole that could put children and the public in danger.

A gaggle of local state representatives led by Chester County Rep. Becky Corbin (R-155) have sponsored House Bill 883 that would remove the philosophical exemption. It would also require parents seeking a religious exemption seek out advice and a signature from a physician and be provided with risk factors for not being immunized before it could be granted. The bill was referred to the House Subcommittee on Health this week.

State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17) plans to introduce similar legislation in the state senate. He told NBC10 in February that the exemption is “unusual."

Asked whether Gov. Tom Wolf’s Administration would support the removal of the philosophical exemption, a health department spokeswoman would only say they would like to have all school children properly immunized.

Fixing the System

Having incorrect or incomplete data means the loss of time and money when it comes to responding to an outbreak says Dr. Long, the infectious disease expert.

"It's horribly handicapping for them,” she said of health workers. “They have to devote so many resources and you have to follow every child, every person they came in contact with. Then you have to verify that they’re not infected."

On the money front, Long cited a paper in the journal Vaccine that found the investigation of 16 measles outbreaks in 2011 that resulted in 107 confirmed cases cost health agencies between $2.1 and $5.6 million.

"It would be a huge help — A: if children in schools were immunized and if the records were accurate and that you made it harder for people to be exempt so that you have your ducks in the row. And then you will have your catastrophes and you’ll address them,” Long said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it is working to address current lapses in the immunization surveillance database. Amy Worden, Communications Director for the agency, said the Wolf Administration inherited the problem from its predecessor and that it is striving to fix the system.

The Health Department along with the Department of Education plans to offer training for school staff members who are collecting and entering the data into the state database. Worden said it’s up to schools to decide who is qualified to handle the complex data. In some schools it could be a nurse, in others, like Philadelphia where nurses do not serve a school everyday, a principal or secretary could be in charge of the task.

Both agencies will also stress the importance of ensuring the information is accurate, officials said.

A new validation policy has now gone into effect, officials say. Nurses on staff at the health department will review the data to look for problems. “When an outlier is identified, the Pa. Department of Health contacts the district to validate,” Worden said. She adds that the department is always looking to improve its practices.

Health officials plan to push for legislation that would remove an eight-month grace period that allows new students time to get up-to-date with their vaccinations. This delay keeps health officials from having the latest data at their disposal, they say.

While these may improve internal reporting, it is still difficult for a parent to ascertain the risk their child faces of being exposed to unvaccinated children at school. Julie Kuerschner says her daughters’ school would not tell her the vaccination status of other children citing privacy concerns.

But statistics could, and should, be published by schools each year just like crime, standardized testing performance and graduation rates, Long says.

"They should be required to publish or make public not only their exemption rates, but their immunization rates. And they should make them for parents who want to know whether to send to that school and then for donors and alums that what to be part of the safe school alliance,” she said.

The health department says there are no laws or regulations barring the release of such data, which can already be provided through an open records request. It shouldn't be that hard, however, Long says.

Passionate against the current surge in delayed and anti-vaccine movements, the doctor looks to another hot button health topic surrounding classrooms across the country — the peanut allergy — and wonders why some parents embrace one and not the other.

"Why not have this be as important as peanuts?"

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

A former Temple University law school student is accused of shooting and killing a Temple law grad inside his car in the parking lot of a Delaware business last month.

New Castle County Police announced Wednesday they arrested and charged 25-year-old Benjamin Rauf of Westerlo, New York in connection to the murder of 27-year-old Shazim Uppal.

Rauf was arrested Monday by New York State Police at his home and was awaiting extradition to Delaware. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

On August 24 police were called to the parking lot of Genesis Healthcare on the 100 block of St. Claire Drive in Hockessin, Delaware around 7 p.m. The caller told police a 2007 black Audi A8 was sitting in the parking lot for an unusually long time. Responding officers found Uppal's body in the driver’s seat.

Investigators determined he died from gunshot wounds to the upper torso. They also said his death was not a random act of violence and that they found a "substantial amount of marijuana" inside his car.

Uppal had just graduated from Temple University's Beasley School of Law in July, according to a school spokesperson.  Police say Rauf also attended the Beasley School of Law where he had met Uppal; they said the motive for the shooting was robbery.

Uppal attended Masjid Isa Ibn-e-Maryam, a mosque located in Newark, Delaware. Members of the mosque expressed their condolences on the official Facebook page.

A few days after filing for bankruptcy the Please Touch Museum received a huge helping hand from two anonymous donors.

The museum announced at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing Tuesday that they received their first two donations, one for $1 million and another for $250,000, from the donors.

On Friday the children’s museum filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after borrowing more money than it could pay back to renovate a new home in Fairmount Park’s Memorial Hall. A reorganization plan was aimed at shedding most of the museum's $60 million debt to bondholders and negotiating a deal in which the museum turns over maintenance of Memorial Hall to the city.

Bankruptcy lawyer Lawrence McMichael says the action comes on the heels of an agreement reached Thursday with a committee representing bondholders with about half of the debt.

The two donations are part of a $10 million fundraising drive to pay a portion of a settlement the museum reached with its bondholders. 

“Getting two substantial donations right out of the gate in this campaign is very encouraging,” said Please Touch Museum president and CEO Lynn McMaster. “While much work remains to achieve our $10 million goal, we read this as a clear sign of our treasured value to the region. The museum has received a lot of positive feedback from all corners of the donor community as news of the settlement has become public.”

Under the settlement, the bondholders will receive around $11 million to pay off the $60 million they are owed, officials with the museum said.

“The burden of the bond obligation proved to be an impediment to our ability to raise funds because potential donors were reluctant to donate to an entity saddled with the bond obligation,” McMaster said. “That obstacle has now been removed.”

A Bankruptcy Judge approved all the motions the museum filed Tuesday. Officials with the museum say they’re allowed to use cash reserves to continue paying employees and maintain operations during the legal process. They hope to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year and meet the fundraising goal by next March.

The next status hearing is scheduled for October 15.

Despite the bankruptcy, the Please Touch Museum remains fully operational. CLICK HERE for information on visiting hours and exhibits.
 

Three women charged in a Philadelphia gas station attack that left a homeless man in a coma rejected plea deals Tuesday.

Attorneys for Aleathea Gillard, 34, Shareena Joachim, 23, and Kaisha Duggins, 24, rejected to pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy and other offenses in the beating of 51-year-old Robert Barnes. Officials say the suspects could have received a prison term of 7 to 14 years if they pleaded guilty to the charges. They now face longer prison sentences if convicted.

The three women along with three juveniles were all charged in connection to a brutal beating involving a hammer, a piece of wood and Mace outside the Sunoco gas station at 5th Street and Somerville Avenue in the Olney section of the city back on April 7. Police say one of Gillard’s children falsely accused Barnes, a homeless veteran, of hitting him, which prompted the attack.

Surveillance video shows a group jump from a minivan and rush towards Barnes as he stood outside the Sunoco station. They then punch him, stomp on him and strike him with a hammer. One of the women in the group then grabbed a boy from the minivan and brought him over to the injured man.

"One of the women was screaming look at my child's face," said Brittney Horsey, a witness. "He did this to my child's face."

At that point, the group got back in the minivan and sped off.

Barnes, who suffered severe head injuries, remains in a coma several months after the attack. The three teens, a 14-year-old boy, 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy all pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy and were remanded to juvenile detention centers. Gillard, Joachim and Duggins will face homicide charges if Barnes dies, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Would he be a crafty veteran out of the bullpen?

If you are going to Wednesday night’s Phillies game, you can get your hands on a Pope Francis Rookie Card.

In honor of Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Philadelphia, fans may pick up a commemorative Phillies Pope Francis Rookie Card at the First Base and Third Base Kiosks at Citizens Bank Park.

On the front of the card is a picture of Pope Francis and the back of the card features his statistics, including his date of birth and place of birth.

The Phillies play the Nationals at 7:05 p.m.

Authorities are investigating after a New Jersey high school football player was caught on video ripping the helmet off an opponent and hitting him with it, wounding the player so that he needed 10 stitches. 

It was during the second quarter of Friday night's game between Linden and Immaculata high schools when a Linden defensive lineman grabbed the helmet off his opponent and smacked him in the head with it before chucking the helmet aside, video shows.

The injured player went to Morristown Hospital and received 10 stitches for his wound, Immaculata High School officials said.

Immaculata High School's athletic director, Thomas Gambino, said the incident may have been overlooked during the game, but the injured player "handled himself with restraint and maturity at the time, upholding Immaculata's expectations for sportsmanship."

He continued, "Once we reviewed the videotape, we felt it necessary to contact Linden officials, who in turn have been very cooperative and apologetic."

The school said it contacted Linden school officials, the Linden police department, and the NJSIAA. Linden police said the department was looking into the unsportsmanlike conduct. 

Neither school released the names of the players involved because they're both minors.

Linden's superintendent, Danny Robertozzi, said in a statement the public school district is "extremely disheartened" by what happened and the Board of Education is "appalled" by the student's conduct. As such, the student has been removed from the football team and the Board of Education is "pursuing the severest disciplinary measures permitted under law," Robertozzi said.

"The brutal action taken by this young man is simply unacceptable and will not be condoned," the statement continued.

An escape artist friend of magician Criss Angel was taken to the hospital after nearly drowning during a stunt Tuesday in New Jersey Tuesday afternoon, officials say.

Spencer Horsman was unable to escape a water-filled Plexiglas box during a promotional event in New Brunswick for an upcoming stage show with Angel at about noon, officials at the State Theatre say. Horsman was nearly done with the stunt after about two and a half minutes in the box, but couldn't get the last lock.

Rescuers had to lower a crane and pull him out, officials said. He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center.

Horsman was conscious after the scare Tuesday, according to reports, and Angel tweeted a photo of Horsman with the caption "@SpencerHorsman recovering well."

.@SpencerHorsman recovering well. pic.twitter.com/IIUljx6nvG

• Plane Diverted After Passenger Hits Flight Attendant

— Criss Angel (@CrissAngel) September 16, 2015

According to the Asbury Park Press, Horsman had been attempting to replicate a trick based on Harry Houdini's "Water Torture Cell" ahead of the stage shows at the State Theatre this weekend.

He was suspended over Livingston Avenue in the 30-inch box and covered in locks. Once he escaped the locks, he was supposed to unlock the top of the box and free himself. 

It wasn't the first time Horsman had to be rescued while attempting the stunt. In June, he similarly was unable to free himself during a performance at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. He lost consciousness and had to be freed by Angel and several stagehands. 

Horsman is a former contestant on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

Police are investigating the reported attempted sexual assault of a woman near an elementary school in Philadelphia Wednesday morning.

The incident happened about 6 a.m. outside the John Marshall Elementary School in the 4500 block of Griscom Street in the city’s Frankford section.

A female called 911 and told police she was walking in the neighborhood when she was approached by an unknown male. The female told police the male pistol-whipped her and dragged her into the schoolyard of the school.

The female told investigators the male attempted to sexually assault her. She was able to break free and call 911.

The suspect remains on the loose.

The woman told police her purse was stolen during the alleged attack.

Investigators will interview the victim and review surveillance cameras in the area.

The school opened on time, but students and staff were kept away from the crime scene investigation.