Leaving behind a sea of broken glass, a vandal damaged 25 yellow school buses parked in a fenced-in lot in Northeast Philadelphia last night, adding strain to an already strapped school district.
The buses were among 150 parked in the Shallcross Garage on Woodhaven and Byberry roads whose windows and windshields had been smashed, said school spokesman Fernando Gallard. The buses' wiring also was damaged.
"It's a difficult financial situation, that's not the thing we want to see," Gallard said, noting that repairs will cost the district about $30,000.
Philadelphia police arrested five more people over the weekend for prostitution as part of a recent crackdown by law enforcement.
The Citywide Vice Unit conducted an operation Saturday targeting "Johns" along Kensington Avenue in the 24th District. Four men solicited undercover police officers and were arrested.
Eddie Robinson, 46, of Mulberry Street near Orthodox; William Moncrief, 39, of Kelvin Avenue near Rennard Street; Juan Gonzalez, 38, of York Street near Howard; and Rafal Dec, 34, of Tilton Street near Clearfield, are each charged with patronizing prostitution.
It started as a routine run: An ambulance dispatched to ferry a seriously injured car-accident victim to the hospital.
But the trip quickly became extraordinary: The patient assaulted two paramedics and tried to steal the ambulance before police officers responding to the medics' call for help Tasered the patient to regain control, said Frank Keel, a spokesman for the firefighters' union, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 22.
The incident happened about 5:30 a.m. this morning on Erie Avenue near 19th in Tioga, Keel said.
Police today identified the victims of two unrelated weekend homicides as Julius Clayton, 31, of East Falls, and Tyrel Washington, 27, of North Philadelphia.
In the first case, someone shot Clayton, of McMichael Street near Roberts Avenue, in the head just after 11 p.m. Friday on Hill Creek Drive near Adams Avenue in Crescentville, police said. Doctors declared him dead 15 minutes later at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
In the second case, someone shot Washington, of 10th Street near Brown, just after 1:30 p.m. Sunday on a basketball court at 8th Street near Brown. He walked to the corner and collapsed. He died at 2:06 p.m. at Hahnemann University Hospital. Family members who spoke to the Daily News on Sunday described the shooting as the result of an ongoing feud with young men from another neighborhood, but they weren't sure if Washington was targeted.
A 48-year-old woman has been hospitalized after being shot in Kensington Sunday afternoon, police said.
The shooting happened just before 3 p.m. on Crystal Street near Tioga. Police said the female victim was wounded three times in the ear, shoulder and abdomen. She was rushed to Temple University Hospital where she was listed in critical but stable condition.
Police did not have any information regarding a suspect or possible motive.
A quiet Sunday afternoon was shattered by the sound of gunfire on a North Philadelphia basketball court, leaving one man dead, police said.
The shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m. on 8th Street, between Brown and Poplar streets, across from the Philadelphia Police Forensic Science Building. Police said the 27-year-old victim was shot twice in the chest, then walked to 8th and Poplar, where he collapsed.
The victim was transported to Hahnemann University Hospital where he was declared dead. His name has not been released.
Police are investigating the murder of a man who was shot in the head in the city's Hunting Park section early Thursday morning.
Cops said the 27-year-old victim, who remains unidentified, was found with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head in a breezeway off Roosevelt Boulevard near Broad Street shortly before 6:30 a.m. He was pronounced dead there.
Police have not reported any arrests or suspects in the homicide.
A 7-year-old girl is in stable condition after her father cut her neck with a knife in East Mount Airy this morning, police said.
Cops were called to the house on Cliveden Street near Belfield Avenue around 8:30 a.m. and arrested the girl's father. Police said they also recovered a weapon in the home.
The young victim was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center before being transferred to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, where she was listed in stable condition this afternoon, police said.
Philadelphia police on Tuesday warned residents in two neighborhoods to be on the lookout after a woman was indecently assaulted in Pennsport and a man attempted to lure a 13-year-old girl in the Northeast.
In the incident in the Northeast, a 13-year-old girl was walking near her home on Hasbrook Avenue near Godfrey in Crescentville around 3 p.m. Monday when police say a man she did not know pulled over in a car and tried to get her to come over to him. She ran into the house, and the man took off, police said. The man is described as black and in his 30s with a dark complexion and a mustache. He wore a brown sweatshirt and drove a newer-model light-gray sedan.
In a separate incident Monday evening, police said, a 19-year-old woman was walking to her house on Mifflin Street near 3rd in Pennsport when a man approached and indecently assaulted her before fleeing toward 4th Street.
An Overbrook woman who was injured in last week's building collapse on Market Street filed a lawsuit today against the contractor, site owner, permit expediter and the Salvation Army.
Shirley Ball, 60, is seeking more than $50,000 for injuries to her head, back, shoulder, knees, elbows and neck she suffered in the June 5 collapse, according to the 40-page complaint filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
At least six other victims have also initiated lawsuits.
