Archive: January, 2011
Update: The child's mother's boyfriend, Joseph Zysk, 27, has been charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and related offenses for the death of the 3-year-old boy, Jason Larkin, police said. The cause of his death was multiple blunt force trauma to the body and a lacerated liver, according to police.
The death of a 3-year-old child this weekend in Roxborough has been declared a homicide, police said, and while investigators said that someone was in custody for the death, they remained tight-lipped about who they have charged.
The investigation into the 3-year-old boy’s death early Saturday morning was being handled by the Special Victims Unit until it was taken over today by homicide investigators, police said.
There's a story in today's Daily News about a vigil that was held last night for Rasheedah Wilson, who died along with her three children in a horrific house fire in Feltonville yesterday.
We sometimes can't squeeze everything we have on a particular incident into the paper because of size constraints, so here are a few bits that you won't read in the vigil story:
Linda Kern lived down the street from Rasheedah Wilson. Her 12-year-old daughter, Lena, was close friends with Wilson's girls, Minyan, 11 and Shanai, 8. Every Wednesday, Kern said, she would take Lena, Minyan and Shanai to the Wyoming Avenue Baptist Church, at Front Street and Wyoming Avenue, for kids' activities and dinner.
The snow and frigid air didn’t keep the hotheads off the street last night: Three men were shot dead, and a woman seriously wounded, in three unrelated shootings in North Philadelphia and East Germantown.
In the first incident, police found Charles Johnson, 18, collapsed and bleeding from two gunshot wounds to the chest on Washington Lane near Musgrave Street in East Germantown about 10:40 p.m. Paramedics rushed Johnson, of Price Avenue near Highland in Lansdowne, to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he died at 12:55 a.m. this morning. Detectives later found a 1999 Hyundai, riddled with bullet holes, around the corner on Musgrave Street, police spokeswoman Officer Christine O’Brien said. It appears Johnson was attacked in the car and stumbled to Washington Lane.
Forty minutes later, police rushed to 28th Street near Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia, where a 31-year-old man had been shot repeatedly, O’Brien said. He died at 11:46 p.m. at Temple University Hospital. His name hasn’t been released. Police found a 19-year-old woman, who had been shot in the shoulder in the same incident, at 25th and Allegheny streets, O’Brien said. She remains in critical but stable condition at Temple.
A fire ripped through multiple houses in Juniata Park early Thursday morning, fire officials said.
The fire was called in at 1:28 a.m. for a rowhouse on Louden Street near Palethrop.
It’s not clear how many homes were affected by the blaze. The fire was under control at 2:12 a.m.
A man died after he was shot in East Germantown on Wednesday night, police said.
The unidentified man was shot in the chest and hip on Washington Lane near Musgrave Street about 10:45 p.m., police said.
He died several hours later at Einstein Medical Center, authorities said.
Remember those Eagles fans who pegged Santa with some snowballs? There's a grinch up in Bensalem that could use some snow-pelting.
Police say Eddie Simmons, 26, of the 1300 block of Neshaminy Valley Drive, grew enraged at a man using a snow-blower to remove snow at Simmons' apartment complex this morning, accusing him of blowing snow at his car. When the plower, a subcontractor working for the apartment complex to clear its lots and walks, responded that he wasn't plowing in Simmons' car, Simmons allegedly threatened him, saying: "Somebody better move the snow, or somebody is going to get shot." Simmons then allegedly pulled a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun from his pocket and shoved it into the snow-plower's cheek, according to Bensalem police. He then returned to his apartment.
The snow-plower alerted police, who arrested Simmons and charged him with aggravated assault, terroristic threats and related offenses. He will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today.
A man was shot and critically injured in North Philadelphia on Tuesday night, police said.
The unidentified 22-year-old man was shot in the back at 11:20 p.m. on Huntingdon Street near Kensington Avenue, police said.
He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was in critical condition early Wednesday.
A water main broke early Wednesday morning in Logan, spouting water into the icy streets, police said.
The main broke shortly after midnight on Broad Street and Belfield Avenue.
Police said the Water Department was on the scene. It’s not clear how much water escaped the main.
A masked man robbed a dollar store at gunpoint in North Philadelphia earlier tonight. Police said the thief entered the store, on Allegheny Avenue near 19th Street, about 8 p.m. and stole an unknown amount of cash from the register.
He was described as a 5-foot-2 black man who wore a white mask, blue jacket and blue jeans, police said. He fled on foot on Allegheny Avenue. No one inside the store was injured.
Three crooks robbed Club Ozz in Fishtown about 3:45 this afternoon and made off with $7,000, police said.
No one was injured inside the topless bar, located at the corner of Front Street and Girard Avenue.
Police said one of the robbers was described as a black man who about 6-feet-tall and wore a black skull cap, black and gray flannel shirt and blue jeans. Another crook was described as a stocky hispanic man who was about 5-feet-9 and wore a black hoody, gray vest and blue jeans. A description of the third bandit was not available.
