“We are getting it done here in Philly,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a briefing at Philadelphia International Airport after the flyover that included members of Congress and the city’s mayor.

Biden outlined the substantial initial federal commitment and longer term support for a permanent fix for the vital roadway. “I know how important this stretch of highway is” to Philadelphia and the Northeast Corridor, he said. “Over 150,000 vehicles travel on it every day, including 14,000 trucks. … It’s critical to our economy and it’s critical to our quality of life.’’

Shapiro, offering a timeline that would be welcome news to commuters and long-haul truckers alike, said with Biden at his side: “I can state with confidence that we will have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks. We are going to get traffic moving again thanks to the extraordinary work that is going on here.”

He said “folks here in Philly have a real renewed sense of civic pride through this project” and that “there’s something special happening in our community” with people coming together.

The stretch of the East Coast’s main north-south highway collapsed early last Sunday after a tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an off-ramp and caught fire. State transportation officials said the driver was trying to navigate a curve and lost control.

“I’ve directed my team … to move heaven and earth to get this done as soon as humanly possible,” Biden said. He said he told the governor, “There’s no more important project right now in the country as far as I’m concerned.” The president described it as an “all hands on deck” project to address a “crisis.”

“We’re with you. We’re going to stay with you until this is rebuilt, until it’s totally finished,” he said at the briefing.

Pennsylvania’s plan for the work involves trucking in 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets for the quick rebuilding, with crews working around the clock until the interstate is open to traffic. Instead of rebuilding the overpass right away, crews will use the recycled glass to fill in the collapsed area to avoid supply-chain delays for other materials, Shapiro has said.

After that, a replacement bridge will be built next to it to reroute traffic while crews excavate the fill to restore the exit ramp, officials have said.

Biden said the design was “incredibly innovative in order to get this work done in record time.’’

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the area Tuesday, promised that the federal government would provide the needed assistance to repair the destruction, although he warned that the wreckage will likely raise the cost of consumer goods in the short term because truckers must now travel longer routes.

Joining Biden on the presidential Marine One helicopter were Shapiro, Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman and Rep. Brendan Boyle and Mayor Jim Kenney, all Democrats. Later Saturday, Biden was to attend a 2024 campaign event with union workers at the convention center.

His campaign says Biden, who will appear at the Philadelphia Convention Center, will “lay out the core principles of his economic message” in his remarks. Biden also plans to talk about how a sweeping climate, tax and health care package he signed into law last year has cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums, as his administration focuses on his achievements his first two years the centerpiece argument for his reelection.

Ahead of the event, several of the nation’s most powerful unions — including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — officially endorsed Biden’s campaign. The first-of-its-kind joint endorsement among the unions and the backdrop of hundreds of workers are all part of a meticulously choreographed effort to show the support of labor behind what Biden himself calls the most pro-union president in history.

“Every major labor union in the country is endorsing me” on Saturday, Biden told reporters ahead of a fundraiser in Connecticut on Friday evening. “I’m saying that my philosophy about building from the middle out and the bottom up is working.”

The campaign event also comes amid some encouraging economic news for Biden, with inflation cooling last month, continuing a steady decline in consumer prices primarily driven by lower gas prices, a smaller rise in grocery costs than in previous months and less expensive furniture, air fares and appliances.

Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania have long been at the heart of Biden’s political efforts, as he headquartered his 2020 campaign in the city and the state was one of a handful that had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but flipped back to Democrats four years later.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said some union members supported Trump in the past because “there is a lot of grievance in this country and there is a lot of unhappiness. And what Trump was a master at was being able to exploit fear and exploit grievance.”

She said part of the reason the AFT and other top unions endorsed Biden nearly 18 months before Election Day 2024 was to promote Biden’s economic record against Republican-championed culture war issues.

Biden is “going to feel very, very comfortable when he’s in Philadelphia. He’s going to be among friends,” added Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He pushed for a coordinated endorsement of Biden’s reelection campaign from top unions early in the cycle.

Until now, Biden’s primary campaign activity has been fundraising. He raised cash at a private home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Friday and will head to fundraisers in California, Maryland, Illinois and New York ahead of the second quarter fundraising deadline on June 30.

An elevated section of I-95 collapsed Sunday after a tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline flipped over on an off-ramp and caught fire, igniting a blaze that caused the northbound lanes to collapse and severely damaging the southbound lanes.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a disaster declaration on Monday to expedite repairs. Meanwhile, alternative routes have made commutes much longer for hundreds of thousands of drivers and will likely raise shipping costs as truckers are forced to take lengthy detours. The affected portion of the highway, which is a vital north-south artery on the East Coast and runs from Maine to Florida, typically carries 160,000 vehicles per day, of which 8% are commercial trucks.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the incident will undoubtedly result in higher prices of goods after he visited the collapse site on Tuesday.

“Part of what goes into the cost of everything that we pay for in the store is the cost of shipping, and if a route is disrupted or if it’s longer, or if trucks have to wait, that finds its way into the cost of goods,” Buttigieg said.

On Wednesday, Shapiro announced the state’s rebuilding plan and said crews will work 24 hours a day until they can reopen the interstate. But the governor repeatedly declined to estimate how long that would take.

As economic and traffic impacts frustrate the densely populated area, and uncertainty remains about the repair timeline, similar roadway incidents in the past might offer a clue on when to expect I-95 to reopen.

I-85 collapse in Atlanta, Georgia

A fire that started underneath Interstate 85 in Atlanta burned so hot that it caused a 92-foot elevated section of the highway to collapse on March 30, 2017, NBC News reports. The fire was reported during the evening rush, stalling thousands of drivers as state troopers worked on a way to get vehicles off the roadway. There were no reported injuries.

Then-Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for Atlanta and Fulton County the same night, freeing up federal funds to be used for repairs.

Officials said the freeway is one of the most heavily traveled in the area, carrying over 250,000 vehicles daily through the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Repair efforts took six weeks and totaled $15 million, with officials offering a multimillion-dollar incentive to the project contractor to finish ahead of schedule, The Associated Press reported. The bridge reopened on May 12, 2017.

I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapse in Mount Vernon, Washington

A section of an Interstate-5 highway bridge in Mount Vernon, Washington, collapsed on May 23, 2013, sending cars and people into the Skagit River below. An oversized truck was reported to have caused the collapse, which left three people injured.

I-5 is the main freeway along the West Coast, providing a connection between Seattle and British Columbia, Canada. The Skagit Bridge carries around 71,000 vehicles per day.

A temporary bridge reopened less than a month later and a permanent replacement was finished in mid-September with a cost of nearly $18 million, according to the AP.

I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota

More than 15 years ago, the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed over the Mississippi River during rush hour traffic on Aug. 1, 2007. Thirteen people were killed and 145 more injured. The National Transportation Safety Board determined a design flaw as the cause of the collapse, citing “inadequate load capacity” as a probable explanation.

I-35W was reported to be one of the busiest bridges in the state, carrying over 140,000 vehicles daily, officials said. And federal inspection records show it had been classified as structurally deficient, meaning that it was aging and in need of repair.

A temporary bridge was put in place after 27 days. The permanent bridge was opened on September 2008 after an 18-month accelerated construction period. Construction cost for the new replacement bridge, the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge, totaled $234 million, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said.

I-10 Twin Span Bridge collapse in New Orleans, Louisiana

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, it tore apart a five-mile concrete section of the Interstate-10 bridge, which connects New Orleans to points east. There were no reported injuries.

Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development said the bridge was a vital link for transportation in the region, carrying 55,000 vehicles in daily traffic, and accepted a $30.9 million bid to repair the bridge. The eastbound bridge was opened to traffic less than two months later on Oct. 14 and the westbound bridge was opened on Jan. 6, 2006.

Even though the temporary fix deemed the bridge functional, it was determined to be “too vulnerable” to storm surges in the future, DOTD said. Construction of the new Twin Span Bridge took five years and cost $803 million. The new bridge was opened in September 2011.

Shannon Phillips won $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages on Monday after a jury in New Jersey found that race was a determinative factor in Phillips’ firing, in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws, Law360 reports.

In April 2018, a Philadelphia store manager called police on two Black men who were sitting in the coffee shop without ordering anything. Phillips, then regional manager of operations in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and elsewhere, was not involved with arrests but lost her job less than a month later after objecting to another white manager being placed on leave amid the uproar, according to her lawsuit.

The company’s rationale for suspending the district manager, who was not responsible for the store where the arrests took place, was an allegation that Black store managers were being paid less than white managers, according to the lawsuit. Phillips said that argument made no sense since district managers had no input on employee salaries.

The lawsuit alleged Starbucks was instead taking steps to “punish white employees” who worked in the area “in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”

During closing arguments on Friday, Phillips’ lawyer Laura Mattiacci told jurors that the company was looking for a “sacrificial lamb” to calm the outrage and show that it was taking action, Law360 reported. Picking a Black employee for such a purpose “would have blown up in their faces,” she said.

Starbucks denied Phillips’ allegations, saying the company needed someone with a track record of “strength and resolution” during a crisis and replaced her with a regional manager who had such experience, including navigating the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Law360 reported.

“A peacetime leader is very different from a wartime leader,” Starbucks attorney Richard Harris said during his closing arguments, Law360 reported. “These were turbulent times. Starbucks needed someone to show strength and resolution.”

Phillips’ attorney, however, cited earlier testimony from a Black district manager, who was responsible for the store where the arrests took place, who described Phillips as someone beloved by her peers and worked around the clock after the arrests.

Phillips broke into tears and hugged one of her lawyers after the verdict was read, Law360 reported. In an email, Mattiacci confirmed the award amount and said the judge will consider awarding back pay and future pay, as well as attorney’s fees. Mattiacci told the New Jersey Law Journal that she will seek about $3 million for lost pay, and roughly $1 million on her fee application. Starbucks declined comment Tuesday.

In the April 2018 incident, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested in a Starbucks coffee shop near tony Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia shortly after the manager called police to report that two men were refusing to either make a purchase or leave the premises. They were later released without charges.

Video of the arrest prompted national outcry and led the current CEO of Starbucks to personally apologize to the men. The company later reached a settlement with both men for an undisclosed sum and an offer of free college education. The company also changed store policies and closed locations across the country for an afternoon for racial-bias training.

The two men also reached a deal with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The Philadelphia Police Department adopted a new policy on how to deal with people accused of trespassing on private property — warning businesses against misusing the authority of police officers.

Officials revealed the cause and manner of death of a truck driver whose body was found in the rubble a day after his vehicle crashed, caught fire and caused a portion of I-95 to collapse in Northeast Philadelphia.

Nathan Moody, 53, died from blunt trauma to the head, inhalation and thermal injuries, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner revealed Tuesday night. His death was ruled an accident.

Moody was driving a tanker truck that was carrying about 8,500 gallons of gasoline in Northeast Philadelphia on Sunday around 6:20 a.m., officials said.

As Moody exited I-95 onto Cottman Avenue, he lost control of the vehicle while navigating a turn at the end of the exit, according to investigators. The vehicle then turned onto its side before it ruptured and eventually exploded, officials said. Surveillance video from a nearby business captured the crash and explosion.

Fire from the explosion caused an elevated section of I-95 to collapse. Responding firefighters were eventually able to get the flames under control.

Officials closed I-95 in both directions between the Aramingo and Woodhaven exits.

At about 2 p.m. Monday, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Police said remains had been pulled out of the rubble. Family members identified the victim as Moody before investigators officially identified him a day later.

No other vehicles are believed to have been involved in the crash, officials said.

Family members said Moody was a married father of three and an Army veteran who owned his own truck. His cousin, Alex Moody, described him as a hardworking family man who lived in the Philadelphia area and had been driving trucks for a decade.

“My cousin is a hardworking man. Family man. Good husband and father to his wife and daughter,” Alex Moody told NBC10. “We’ve always been cool and tight. He’s very mild mannered. Calm guy. Really calm person. He gets along with everybody.”

Moody’s other cousin, Isaac Moody, told NBC10 the two were just hanging out on Friday and had plans to meet up again for a cookout on Father’s Day.

“Nate and I did that handshake then we gave each other the hug and I was like, ‘Alright cuz, I’ll see you man. I’ll talk to you such and such.’ He was supposed to call me Saturday, you know? He was supposed to call me Sunday,” Isaac Moody said.

When Isaac Moody first found out about the fire and collapse, he held out hope that his cousin — who was more like a brother to him — would be found alive.

I-95 collapse Jun 11

Truck fire causes I-95 collapse in Philadelphia

“Whatever got in Nate’s way, he had to bail out the truck,” Isaac Moody said. “Maybe they’ll find him under some rubble or maybe he might still be alive. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m trying to be as optimistic as possible.”

Isaac Moody described the moment he found out his cousin had died.

“His older sister called me and she said, ‘Ike, the state troopers just left Theresa in Jersey’ and they told her they pulled the body from the truck,” he said.

Family members said Moody drove the same route in and around the I-95 ramp all the time. They also told NBC10 he had a spotless driving record and delivered gasoline to Wawa stores across the region.

“Nobody ever bothers to look at who could have caused that truck, what could have caused that truck, how could that truck have lost control,” Isaac Moody said.

NBC10 reached out to the trucking company Moody worked for but they declined to comment.

The allegations were raised by Scout Ltd., a development company contracted to redevelop an area of Providence, and accuse David Patten, Rhode Island’s director of division of capital asset management and maintenance, and James Thorsen, the now-former administration director, of displaying “bizarre, offensive and unprofessional” behavior during a March 10 trip to inspect a building in Philadelphia.

Patten was also accused of sexual harassment after he made comments about a company official’s appearance and made crude remarks about her husband being out of town, according to an email sent to administration officials.

The email was released last week by Gov. Daniel McKee’s office after the attorney general’s office said they should be made public, according to NBC affiliate WJAR of Providence. McKee’s office had previously tried to deny their release.

The allegations raised in the email sparked an investigation into Patten by the Rhode Island State Police and the human resources department, Gov. McKee said.

Patten and Thorsen did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday. Patten has been on paid leave since March 13, according to WJAR. Thorsen left his position in April, a move that was scheduled prior to the trip, the news station reported.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Family members identified a tanker truck driver who was found dead a day after his vehicle crashed, caught fire and caused a portion of I-95 to collapse in Northeast Philadelphia.

The man, identified by family as 53-year-old Nathaniel “Nate” Moody, was exiting I-95 onto Cottman Avenue on Sunday around 6 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle while navigating a turn at the end of the exit, according to investigators.

The vehicle — which was carrying about 8,500 gallons of gasoline — then turned onto its side before it ruptured and eventually exploded, officials said.

Fire from the explosion caused an elevated section of I-95 to collapse. Responding firefighters were eventually able to get the flames under control.

Officials closed I-95 in both directions between the Aramingo and Woodhaven exits.

At about 2 p.m. Monday, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Police said remains had been pulled out of the rubble. Family members identified the victim as Moody.

His body was turned over to the Philadelphia County Medical Examiner and Coroner’s office.

No other vehicles are believed to have been involved in the crash, officials said.

Family members said Nate was a married father of three and an Army veteran who owned his own truck. His cousin, Alex Moody, described him as a hardworking family man who lived in the Philadelphia area and had been driving trucks for a decade.

“My cousin is a hardworking man. Family man. Good husband and father to his wife and daughter,” Alex told NBC10. “We’ve always been cool and tight. He’s very mild mannered. Calm guy. Really calm person. He gets along with everybody.”

Nate’s other cousin, Isaac Moody, told NBC10 the two were just hanging out on Friday and had plans to meet up again for a cookout on Father’s Day.

“Nate and I did that handshake then we gave each other the hug and I was like, ‘Alright cuz, I’ll see you man. I’ll talk to you such and such.’ He was supposed to call me Saturday, you know? He was supposed to call me Sunday,” Isaac said.

When Isaac first found out about the fire and collapse, he held out hope that his cousin — who was more like a brother to him — would be found alive.

I-95 collapse Jun 11

Truck fire causes I-95 collapse in Philadelphia

“Whatever got in Nate’s way, he had to bail out the truck,” Isaac said. “Maybe they’ll find him under some rubble or maybe he might still be alive. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m trying to be as optimistic as possible.”

Isaac described the moment he found out his cousin had died.

“His older sister called me and she said, ‘Ike, the state troopers just left Theresa in Jersey’ and they told her they pulled the body from the truck,” he said.

Family members said Nate drove the same route in and around the I-95 ramp all the time. They also told NBC10 he had a spotless driving record and delivered gasoline to Wawa stores across the region.

“Nobody ever bothers to look at who could have caused that truck, what could have caused that truck, how could that truck have lost control,” Isaac said.

NBC10 reached out to the trucking company Nathaniel Moody worked for but they declined to comment.

Read the latest details on the I-95 crash, including the rebuilding effort, investigation and alternative routes, here.

On Sunday, around 6 a.m., a tanker truck exiting I-95 onto Cottman Avenue lost control while navigating a turn at the end of the exit, according to investigators.

The vehicle — which was carrying about 8,500 gallons of gasoline — then turned onto its side before it ruptured and eventually exploded, officials said.

Fire from the explosion caused an elevated section of I-95 to collapse. Responding firefighters were eventually able to get the flames under control.

Officials closed I-95 in both directions between the Aramingo and Woodhaven exits.

At about 2 p.m. Monday, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Police said remains had been pulled out of the rubble, but said that the body has not yet been “positively identified.”

Officials said that the victim’s remains had been turned over to the Philadelphia County Medical Examiner and Coroner’s office.

A representative of the Pennsylvania State Police said that officials are waiting for confirmation before providing any other details.

No other vehicles are believed to have been involved in this crash, officials said.

What we know about the victim

While investigators have not yet identified the victim, family members identified the man as 53-year-old Nathaniel Moody.

Family described Moody as a hardworking and married father of three children who was an Army veteran from the Philadelphia area, owned his own truck and had been driving trucks for a decade.

“My cousin is a hardworking man. Family man. Good husband and father to his wife and daughter,” Moody’s cousin, Alex Moody, told NBC10. “We’ve always been cool and tight. He’s very mild mannered. Calm guy. Really calm person. He gets along with everybody.”

Family members said Moody drove the same route in and around the I-95 ramp all the time. They also told NBC10 he had a spotless driving record and delivered gasoline to Wawa stores across the region.

NBC10 reached out to the trucking company Moody worked for but they declined to comment.

Declaring a disaster

On Monday morning, Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a disaster declaration because of the roadway’s collapse. This declaration is intended to help funnel state and federal funds to reconstruction efforts.

Still, in a visit to the site on Sunday, Shapiro noted that reconstruction efforts will likely take “some number of months.”

“I found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died,” Shapiro said on Sunday.

Shapiro also spoke with President Joe Biden on Monday who reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to provide any necessary resources to repair I-95 safely and efficiently, a spokesperson for his office said.

New traffic reality with I-95 closed

While the drivers of an estimated 160,000 vehicles that normally take I-95 during any given weekday had to find an alternate route due to the roadway’s collapse, traffic was moving relatively steadily on Monday.

While there were reports of slowdowns citywide, at the start of rush hour at about 7 a.m., the longest delay at the time was about 29 minutes for those headed eastbound along I-476 toward I-676.

Also, in order to deal with the disruption that months of construction will likely have on travel — and traffic — throughout the region, SEPTA added additional trains to its schedule.

Alternate routes for I-95

There were other routes available for those traveling into the city from Northeast Philadelphia or Trenton, N.J.

Click here for the full list of alternate routes.

Searching for clues in the rubble

At the site of the collapse, crews worked long hours overnight to clear tons of rubble and debris that remained following Sunday’s collapse of the northbound lanes of I-95 at Cottman Road in Northeast Philadelphia.

Officials have declined to provide the identity of the company that owned the tanker truck that caught fire. NBC10 reached out to the company but they declined to comment.

On Sunday, the incident evolved quickly. Initially, commuters on the highway could see smoke and flames near the Cottman Avenue on-ramp. Then, at about 6:15 a.m. on Sunday, shortly after the roadway was closed due to the fire, the northbound lanes collapsed onto the truck below.

I-95 collapse Jun 11

Truck fire causes I-95 collapse in Philadelphia

After the incident, Philadelphia Fire Department Capt. Derrick Bowmer said the northbound lanes of I-95 were gone and the southbound lanes were “compromised” by heat and fire.

He said that the cleanup would take some time.

“We will be here for a while,” he said.

Demolition planned

According to Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll, an inspection of the site has shown that the southbound lanes will need to be demolished.

The demolition began Monday and should take four to five days, Carroll said. A timeline for the next steps in the reconstruction process will be revealed once engineers complete their initial review, officials said.

Prior to the incident, the overpass that collapsed was listed in good condition, according to Carroll.

Asked how PennDOT plans to proceed with reconstruction efforts in the coming days, Carroll said they are working on a plan of attack.

“We want to pick the solution that provides us the quickest but safest remedy,” said Carroll.

Also, Monday morning, federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the scene of the collapse to work on response efforts.

Officials said that NTSB investigators began “gathering data about the truck, and contacted the motor carrier about its fleet operation.”

NTSB officials said that a preliminary report on their findings should be available in 2-3 weeks on the NTSB’s website and posted to the agency’s Twitter account.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.

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The English singer and songwriter is in town for two shows and stopped by Philips Steaks in South Philly to learn how to make a cheesesteak, and even made them to order for customers.

The owners, Philip and Joseph, showed Sheeran the ropes of how to make a cheesesteak and then let him serve customers and got their reactions.

A video posted on Sheeran’s Instagram goes behind the scenes as he learns how to make the Philly staple.

One woman said the cheesesteak was “perfect” and gave it a thumbs up.

“This is beyond unbelievable, and I got to tell you, I think Ed did just a little bit better than my brother Philip for his first time making a cheesesteak,” said Joseph.

Sheeran is performing at the Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia Saturday as part of his “+-=÷x” concert tour that goes until September.

Timothy Taylor, 35, was picked up by the U.S. Marshals Service nearly 100 miles from New York City, where he’s accused of killing Theresa Gregg back on May 13. The 37-year-old woman was found unconscious inside the apartment she shared with Taylor, police said.

Officers were called to the Bedford Avenue building around 8:30 a.m., where they found a gruesome scene in the fourth-floor unit. Gregg had multiple stab wounds to her neck and across the rest of her body.

Gregg worked as an officer for the Department of Homeless Services. The department released a statement shortly after her death, calling it a “heart-breaking tragedy.”

“We are ever-grateful for Officer Gregg’s invaluable contributions and tireless dedication to serving and supporting vulnerable New Yorkers and ensuring a safe environment for them. This is a tremendous loss for the agency and our city,” the statement continued.

Two weeks after her death, Schenectady authorities reported the death of Tishawn Folkes-Taylor. The 44-year-old woman was found dead at her Pleasant Street home on May 28, and Taylor was quickly identified as a person of interest in her killing.

Reports link Taylor and Folkes-Taylor from a previous marriage. Any motive in either killing has not been publicly shared by authorities.

U.S. Marshals in Philadelphia said they received a tip that the 35-year-old suspect may be in Center City. Members of their fugitive task force tracked Taylor to a bar around 11:20 a.m. Friday on Chestnut Street and took him into custody.

“Our thoughts are with the children who suffered through this horrific domestic violence, and hope they find some semblance of peace and closure in Taylor’s arrest,” Eric Gartner, United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a press release.

On May 8, a dog named Bentley came into the ACCT Philly shelter after he was found wandering around Philadelphia. ACCT Philly workers scanned him and discovered he had a microchip. When they called the number provided, they were answered by Dee Dee, the sister of Bentley’s owner who lives in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Dee Dee told ACCT Philly her sister had passed away two years ago and that Bentley had been missing for more than three years. Dee Dee had spent the years trying to find him but never did. Dee Dee expressed her desire to reclaim Bentley who was all she had left of her sister. 

Over the span of 20 days, ACCT Philly worked to find transportation to help bring Bentley back to Memphis. Last week, they contacted the volunteer pilots Whiskers, Tails & Scales Transport who transported Bentley to Tennessee on Sunday. He was then reunited with Dee Dee on Monday. 

Video obtained by NBC10 shows Dee Dee in tears as she hugs Bentley. She told NBC10 she kept her sister’s phone activated so she could pick it up if and when Bentley was found. 

“Every time I look at Bentley I see him and my sister and how they used to go and walk together and how he would comfort her and everything,” she said. “So it’s wonderful. It is really wonderful to have him back home.” 

ACCT Philly reminded pet owners to make sure your pet’s microchip is up to date with your information. You can update your microchip for free by following this link.

Police responded to Crossroads Accelerated Academy along the 4300 block of Westminster Avenue at 11:40 a.m. after multiple students between the ages of 14 and 16 suddenly became sick. 

“According to a preliminary investigation, two students brought in grape juice laced with ‘wonk,’” Philadelphia School District spokesperson Monique Braxton said. “Wonk is an opioid substance.” 

At least 12 students drank the substance and began experiencing lightheadedness with some of them also vomiting, officials said. Five of the students were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where they are in stable condition. The other seven students went home with their parents. 

The school was placed on lockdown at 12:16 p.m. and police brought in trained officers with the counterterrorism unit to help with the investigation. 

“They responded to the scene to do a preliminary testing on the substance and they determined they needed further testing so the substance will have to go to a lab,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Kpana Massaquoi said. 

Police continue to investigate. 

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

NBC10’s Karen Hua spoke with officials at the ACCTPhilly animal shelter about the 127-pound alligator — named Big Mack — that was taken into custody.

“It was behind a padlocked door, there was a narrow set of stairs nearby, some weights, somebody worked out nearby,” detailed Sarah Barnett, ACCTPhilly executive director, when asked about where the animal was found.

According to the woman who surrendered the alligator — who asked only to be identified as “Yali” — the animal had lived in a homemade enclosure at that home for the past 11 years.

And, since alligators can live for up to 30 years, Big Mack may have some growing to do.

Officials that removed the animal said it was living in “less than ideal” conditions, since he didn’t have enough water or sunlight, which is technically inhumane.

But, officials told NBC10 they think the owner genuinely tried his best.

Yali said her husband was sad to see the alligator removed, but the couple have recently split and she decided it needed to go.

“My husband had him since 2011. We’ve had him all these years. He’s been in the basement, but now we’ve separated and I want him out of here,” she said.

According to officials at ACCTPhilly, it’s the fourth large reptile they have had to rescue in a month. A caiman, found in FDR Park in early March, needed to be euthanized after a sanctuary couldn’t be found for it.

In Pennsylvania, it’s legal to own an alligator, but you aren’t allowed to release it into the wild.

Barnett said that they don’t plan to bring any charges against the couple in this case, because they don’t want to dissuade anyone in a similar situation from coming forward.

“These people did the right thing. They had this animal. They called us. They asked for help. They coordinated with us. And, that’s what we want people to do,” said Barnett.

Now, ACCT Philly is hoping to find a zoo or animal sanctuary that will take on “Big Mack.”

Correction (April 19, 2023, 9:42 a.m.): This story has been updated to clarify that owning an alligator is legal in Pennsylvania.

The truck driver had picked up a load of dimes worth a total of $750,000 from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia and parked the vehicle in the Walmart parking lot of Philadelphia Mills along the 4300 block of Byberry Road Wednesday night. The driver was supposed to take the dimes to Florida but left the truck unattended in the parking lot, police said. 

“Common practice with drivers to pick up loads. He was going to Florida,” Philadelphia Police Captain John Ryan said. “They park the truck overnight to get on the road in the morning.” 

At some point overnight into Thursday morning, someone used a bolt cutter to break into the truck and stole a portion of the dimes. When police arrived, responding to a call of a group of ten or more people stealing from a trailer, at around 6 a.m. Thursday, they noticed dimes scattered all over the parking lot.

On Friday morning, police said they are seeking a white Chrysler 300 with tinted windows and a dark colored pickup truck for their possible involvement in this incident.

Officials said that “multiple males” wearing black clothing and gray hoodies are also being sought.

Investigators now estimate the unidentified thieves stole about $200,000 worth of dimes. 

Crews worked throughout the day to clean up the “dime” scene. Police, meanwhile, are looking for possible surveillance video. 

The truck that was broken into is owned by the transportation service Keen Cargo. NBC10 reached out to Keen Cargo and U.S. Mint for comment. We have not yet heard back from Keen Cargo. John Chu, the Acting Chief of Public Affairs at the United States Mint, responded Thursday night in a statement.

“The carrier responsible for the shipment is a commercial contractor and is personally insured against incidents of loss or theft,” Chu wrote. “The Mint has implemented countermeasures to aid in the prevention of similar types of thefts in the future. The Philadelphia Police Department is currently conducting an investigation into the theft.”

You might see a billboard asking this exact question if you’re driving on I-95 this week.

Felipe Ferraz of Philadelphia’s Morrell Park is using a digital billboard to propose to his girlfriend, Andressa Vilanova. The couple met in Newark, NJ in 2021 and they have a baby girl named Alice who is four months old.

“I want you for Today, Tomorrow and Forever. Andressa, Will You Marry Me? Vocè quer se casar comigo? I Love You. Felipe,” the billboard reads.

The billboard is live and will appear for eight seconds every minute through Sunday, April 16.

The billboard is located on I-95 and Academy Road going north, just before Exit 32 to Academy Rd.

It can be seen from the shoulder and from State Road.

So what was Andressa’s response?

Felipe told NBC10 she said “yes.”

Congratulations Felipe and Andressa!

A man and woman were both arrested and charged after a young boy was found naked inside a dog cage in a Philadelphia home while two young girls were found partially clothed in the rain in the backyard, police said.

The ordeal began around 1 p.m. Thursday when Hector Perez noticed two girls, ages 4 and 5, standing in the rain partially clothed in the backyard of his neighbor’s home along the 4200 block of Glenview Street.

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“They have pampers on,” Perez said. “They have no shirts. They have no pants. They have no shoes. They’re screaming. It’s raining. It’s cold. They’re screaming for their mother. Their father.” 

Perez called 911 and police officers arrived at the scene to find the two girls. When responding officers went inside the home they also found a naked 6-year-old boy locked inside a dog cage, investigators said. 

An elderly woman in a wheelchair was inside the home as well along with a 40-year-old man who was upstairs. Police said they believe the man is a family member of the children, while the elderly woman is their grandmother or great grandmother. That woman was later taken from the home in an ambulance around 6 p.m. Investigators have not yet revealed the reason why.

Police were also met by another woman who told them she was the mother of at least one of the three children, investigators said. The woman was taken to the Special Victims Unit where she was interviewed by police.

Police said none of the children appeared to have been physically harmed. They were all taken to the hospital for an evaluation. Police also said two other children live at the home though they were at school when the officers arrived.

“We don’t know entirely everything that’s going on here,” Philadelphia Police Public Information Officer Eric Gripp said. “We have a long investigation ahead of us. But obviously we don’t live in a world where under any situation whatsoever we should have a child inside of a cage or young children outside standing in the rain.”

Neighbors told NBC10 the boy who was inside the cage has autism though police have not confirmed this.

“This has been an ongoing situation,” Perez said. “These kids have mental issues. Everybody in the neighborhood knows about it. Cops have been coming here on and off. Nothing has ever been done.” 

Another neighbor, Tom McNamee, said he often saw the children running around unsupervised. He told NBC10 he would’ve stepped in if he had known what was happening inside the home.

“I would’ve did a couple things,” he said. “It’s disgraceful. It’s horrible.”

On Friday, the mother of the boy, a 30-year-old woman, as well as a 31-year-old man who lived inside the home, were both arrested in connection to the incident. They are both charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering a person. NBC10 is not releasing the full names of the suspects in order to protect the identities of the children.

The 2-year-old girl, her 31-year-old mother, two 16-year-old boys, a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were at the intersection of 31st and Norris streets near the James G. Blaine School shortly before 6 p.m. when at car pulled up near them. Three gunmen then exited the car and opened fire, police said.

“There were some people inside of a vehicle, some people on the sidewalk, when the shooters approached,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. “We don’t believe that all of the victims at this point were intended targets.

The 2-year-old girl was shot once in the left thigh, her mother was shot twice in the left thigh, one 16-year-old boy was shot once in the left arm, the other 16-year-old boy was shot in the right arm and left thigh, the 15-year-old boy was shot twice in the chest and the right side of his body, the 13-year-old boy was shot in the left hand, and the 17-year-old boy was grazed in the left thigh.

All seven victims were taken to the hospital and are in stable condition, according to police.

Mustafa Ali, a resident in the community, told NBC10 he spoke to one of the teens who was shot. 

“He’s fine,” Ali said. “He just wanted to get to his parents and I just looked like, ‘There’s an ambulance right here. Get in the ambulance.’ But for the most part, all this needs to stop.” 

Ali, 36, told NBC10 he survived two shootings in both 2012 and 2018.

“It’s senseless,” Ali said. “Its kids getting shot now. I got a son that age. The headline is going to be, ‘teen shot.’ I got a teen so it’s just like, whether it’s my son shot or not it’s just like, it’s nothing that’s making me feel any better that it wasn’t my child because it was my child’s friends.” 

While speaking with reporters after the shooting, Commissioner Outlaw addressed the age of the victims.

“Our shooters are getting younger and younger. Our victims are getting younger and younger. And they have guns,” Outlaw said. “If you know that this young person has a gun — of course it’s illegal — in your home, you can report that. You can do that anonymously. You can call 911, whatever it is. But we have to get the guns out of the hands of these young people. Be nosy. Know what your young people are doing.”

Late Thursday night, police released surveillance photos and a description of three men wanted in connection to the shooting.

The first suspect is described as a man with a black face mask wearing a black “New Balance” sweater. The second suspect is described as a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and black “Under Armour” sneakers. The third suspect is described as a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

Police also said the suspects were inside a gray, 2011 or 2016 four-door Hyundai Elantra with an unknown Pennsylvania tag.

If you have any information on the identity of the three suspects, please call Philadelphia Police.

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The ordeal began on February 19 shortly before 6:30 p.m. inside a Save A Lot store on 6301 Chew Avenue. 

Investigators said a man and a woman began arguing with a store manager because the business did not have a can of gravy that they wanted. As the argument continued, the manager asked for help from the store’s security guard. 

The woman then allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at the guard. Police said the guard disarmed the woman and disabled the weapon. The guard and manager then tried to escort both the man and woman outside the store and a struggle ensued, police said. 

The man then pulled out his own weapon and pointed it at the security guard, police said. The guard and manager were then able to force the man and woman out of the store, according to investigators. 

Police said the man then demanded that the security guard give the woman’s gun back to her. The guard then gave the woman back her weapon which he had disabled, according to investigators. 

The man and woman then went back into the store and the man pulled out a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, aimed at the manager and opened fire, police said. The manager was shot at point blank range in the face and the man and woman fled on foot towards the Awbury Park Apartments across the street, investigators said. 

The store manager was taken to the hospital where he remains in critical condition. 

Police released surveillance video and photos of both suspects.

During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Philadelphia Police Captain James Kearney said both suspects are known to the community and have frequented the store before. 

“We believe they’re from that neighborhood and we’re asking for that community to reach out to us, give us a name, and we will take it from there,” Kearney said. “We just need a small piece of the puzzle to give this family some justice and hold these two accountable. We’re talking about two guns that are on the street. We’re talking about people who instantly decided to come back into that store and fire a round at this man just doing his job.” 

If you have any information on either suspect, please call the Philadelphia Police Shooting Investigation Group at 215-686-8271. If you recognize the suspects, do not approach them. Instead, call 911 immediately. 

The outage affected a few thousand customers in Fishtown and Kensington, according to Comcast.

Comcast spokesperson Jen Bilotta said physical damage that severed fiberoptic cable in the Kensington section of northeast Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon resulted in an outage impacting a few thousand households in Kensington, Fishtown and some surrounding areas in the city.

“We’re working as quickly as possible to restore services after vandalism impacted service to a few thousand customers in Kensington and neighboring parts of Philadelphia this afternoon,” a spokesperson wrote. “Many customers are already back online and we are doing everything possible to restore services to all as quickly as possible.”

Comcast has been working on it since the afternoon and some houses are starting to regain access to their service.

Shortly before the game started, Comcast said service was restored to most customers.

Comcast is the parent company of NBC10.

We finally know what jerseys the Eagles will wear in Super Bowl LVII.

Okay, it wasn’t that long of a wait – but we wanted to know, dangit.

The Birds released photos of jersey preparation on the team website Tuesday afternoon showing Super Bowl LVII patches being stitched into midnight green jerseys, and photos of those jerseys being loaded up for transport to Arizona:

So there you have it: the Eagles are wearing midnight green up top, and the Chiefs will be wearing white.

Because the Eagles are the home team in the Super Bowl, this isn’t a huge surprise. But it’s still cool to have the confirmation so we can all start buying official Super Bowl-patched jerseys and planning Super Bowl Sunday outfits accordingly.

The Eagles have only ever worn green jerseys in their four Super Bowl appearances. The Birds wore midnight green in Super Bowl LII when they beat the Patriots, 41-33. They also wore midnight green in Super Bowl XXXIX when they lost to the Patriots, 24-21. And while it was a different shade of green, they wore green in Super Bowl XV when they lost to the Raiders, 27-10.

It remains to be seen what pants the Eagles will wear, but it feels like a safe bet they’ll be wearing white pants. It’s the classic Philadelphia Eagles look, and it’s the pairing they wore most often this season. They haven’t worn a different pants color with green jerseys this season.

MORE: Roob’s obs: Gainwell has become one of Eagles’ top weapons

Philadelphia Inquirer beat writer Josh Tolentino did very important jersey analytics legwork earlier Tuesday to find out the Eagles’ record this season based on jersey combo:

An .800 winning percentage in this outfit is pretty solid.

Also, we’re writing 400ish words on jersey combinations. The Super Bowl is a week and a half away. This is gonna be a long wait.

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A Philadelphia woman spent nearly a week in jail after being wrongfully arrested for a Texas crime due to a case of mistaken identity.

“When you know that you didn’t do anything wrong, it makes you feel crazy,” Julie Hudson told NBC10 after leaving custody.

The ordeal began with a shoplifting incident at a sports store in Webster, Texas, — that’s near Houston — back in May of last year. Webster Police identified the suspect as a woman named Julie Hudson. 

A surveillance photo of the suspect looked similar to social media images of the 31-year-old Ph.D. student from Philadelphia who is also named Julie Hudson.

Hudson, who was unaware she was mistakenly identified as the shoplifting suspect, soon found herself repeatedly being denied jobs. She then found out she had a criminal record. 

When Hudson visited a Philadelphia Police station to find out why, she was arrested and placed in custody on Jan. 5. 

“Everybody is sure that you did something, that you’re [a] criminal, but you know that that’s not who you are,” Hudson said.

After her arrest, Hudson’s family reached out to law enforcement in both Texas and Philadelphia to get her out. 

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Texas then filed a motion on Tuesday to dismiss the charges against Hudson, citing insufficient evidence. 

“We accept charges based on the sworn evidence presented to us by law enforcement,” a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office wrote. “Tuesday, Webster Police notified the court of the error. We dismissed the case within five minutes and immediately contacted Philadelphia Police to release our hold on Ms. Hudson.”

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NBC10 reached out to Philadelphia police on Wednesday after being contacted by Hudson’s family. 

“PPD became aware of the warrant being dismissed on 1/11/23 at approximately 5 p.m. after receiving a media inquiry,” a Philadelphia police spokesperson wrote. “At that time, we immediately requested that Ms. Hudson be released from custody and are actively working with the Philadelphia Department of Prisons to process her release in as expeditious a manner as possible.” 

While Hudson was finally released late Wednesday night, her family told NBC10 they still need to get the mistake taken off her record. 

“If it had not been for the media and the press, nobody would have taken the time to do what they did today,” Hudson’s sister, Charon Hudson, said. 

As for Hudson herself, she is seeking answers.

“I want to find out what happened,” she said. “I want to find out how this happened and I want it to not happen to anyone else ever again.”

The family is also considering taking legal action.

“Julie just so happened to have a family that was able to get the information together, if we needed to get the funds together,” Charon Hudson said. “It’s so many people out there that don’t have that. And that’s what struck a chord in me.”

Thursday afternoon, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner released a statement on Hudson’s ordeal.

“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office became aware of Julie Hudson’s predicament last evening, thanks in part to media reports out of Houston and in Philly,” Krasner wrote. “I am not aware of any efforts by Texas authorities to contact my office directly about the misidentification of Ms. Hudson, which led to her arrest by Philadelphia Police on January 6 based on a fugitive warrant. Once the District Attorney’s Office independently became aware that Webster Police had confirmed to local media that they had wrongly sought Ms. Hudson for arrest, we mobilized quickly to make sure Ms. Hudson was released from custody as soon as possible. 

“Julie Hudson is a Philadelphia resident who has no criminal record and is pursuing a Ph.D. What happened to her should not have happened, and her family deserves a great deal of credit for successfully advocating for her freedom with the media in Houston and in Philadelphia. I am also thankful for the quick action of our Charging Unit, led by Supervising ADA Amanda Hedrick; city Managing Director Tumar Alexander; the First Judicial District; Northwest Detectives; and Department of Prisons for effectuating Ms. Hudson’s release within a matter of hours. I am proud to lead a prosecutor’s office that works closely with law enforcement and the judiciary to ensure a rigorous process of approving arrest and search warrants.”

Krasner also apologized to Hudson and her family on behalf of every agency involved.

“As an institution, law enforcement owes you an apology,” Krasner said. “We ought to be able to do better than to rely on relatives and rely on the media to be a notification process to get you out of jail six days later without your meds.”

While Krasner said Philadelphia Police followed standard protocol during the ordeal, he also added changes in information sharing between jurisdictions can help prevent similar mistakes from happening again.

“If somebody wants us to send someone back, which we will do, under the detainer, there’s nothing wrong with letting us read your affidavit of probable cause,” he said. “At least we might have picked up the phone and said, ‘You did what?! Let me get this straight. You used social media to make an identification? Why else do you think this Philadelphian is committing retail thefts in Texas?'”

Mayor Jim Kenney released a statement as well.

“We commend the rapid response and coordination between the Police Department, Courts, District Attorney’s Office, and Department of Prisons to ensure that Julie Hudson was released as quickly and as safely as possible,” Kenney wrote. “We are dismayed by the ordeal that she and her family went through due to an erroneous warrant from another jurisdiction, and thankful that she is now home.” 

The Mega Million jackpot is the second-largest in history, but it’s not that big despite a billboard along Interstate 95 in Philadelphia saying it was Wednesday morning.

Before 8 a.m., SkyForce10 captured images of the digital billboard on I-95 near the Girard Avenue exit listing the jackpot for the Friday, Jan. 13, 2023 draw at $13.5 billion.

It seems that the decimal point was put in the wrong place. After no one matched all five white balls (7, 13, 14, 15 and 18) and the Mega Ball of 9 in Tuesday night’s draw, the estimated jackpot for Friday’s draw soared to (still massive) $1.35 billion.

At least the $360 million jackpot for Wednesday’s Powerball draw was listed correctly.

mega millions Jan 11

Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to $1.35 Billion After No Winner Tuesday

The Pennsylvania Lottery said later Wednesday morning that the error was fixed after they were alerted by NBC10 to the problem.

In the meantime, check your tickets from Tuesday night — $1 million winners were sold in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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A 27-year-old man from Philadelphia is facing animal cruelty charges stemming from a traffic stop in New York City in which eight malnourished dogs were found in his car — seven of which were discovered inside a lidded bin, the local district attorney said.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday that Ravon Service was charged with torturing and failing to provide food and drink to animals in connection with a Rego Park police stop Saturday.

Service was arraigned on eight counts of failure to provide proper food and drink to an impounded animal; eight counts of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals/failure to provide sustenance; seven counts of carrying animals in a cruel manner and traffic violations.

According to the charges, on Nov. 26, at about 4 p.m., Service was stopped by a cop near the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Furmanville Avenue for having a loud engine exhaust on the 2001 Lexus he was driving. The police officer observed a large dog in the back seat of the vehicle who appeared “emaciated and showed protruding bones on its ribs, hips, and back areas,” according to the district attorney’s office.

Upon a further look, police found in the backseat of the car seven puppies in a plastic storage bin with the lid that did not provide sufficient air supply and did not contain food or water.

The animals were taken to a local veterinary hospital where the adult female dog was treated for malnourishment and the seven puppies were treated for diarrhea symptoms.

Service is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 10. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.

Attorney information for Service was not immediately known.

“Thankfully, these voiceless, defenseless victims have been rescued from their miserable circumstances,” Katz said. “Animal cruelty is unacceptable and illegal and we will hold abusers accountable.”

An arrest warrant has been issued for Jovan Lowe, 18, of the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia, police announced on Saturday afternoon. Lowe is wanted for murder, homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, fleeing police, receiving stolen property and leaving the scene in the fatal hit and run that killed Julia Mae Abraham, 78.

Abraham was sitting in the passenger’s seat of her sister’s silver Mercury Mariner along the 3700 block of Fairmount Avenue at 12:31 p.m. when the vehicle was struck by a stolen white Jeep Grand Cherokee, which police allege was driven by Lowe.

Below is the photo Philadelphia Police released of Lowe, asking for the community’s help in any information that leads to his location.

Surveillance video obtained by NBC10 shows the stolen Cherokee striking the vehicles before flipping over across the intersection. The video then shows two police cruisers drive by immediately after the crash.

Police say they were chasing the vehicle driven by Lowe, and that he had already struck five other parked vehicles before crashing into the Mercury Mariner. 

Tyrelle Butler was sitting inside his car when he heard the crash.

“Looking into my sideview mirror, I could see in one mirror, a vehicle getting hit so fast and so hard with a door sliding out open and in another rearview mirror I saw a white jeep just flying,” Butler said.

The driver fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction. 

Butler stayed with Abraham at the scene of the crash. She was then taken to Presbyterian Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 1:46 p.m. 

“She was breathing. She was giving signs,” Butler said. “She was showing that she was still hanging in there tough. It’s mindless. It’s mindless is what this is. How does someone get involved in something like this? And what? For a joy ride?”

Abraham’s daughter, Sylvia Abraham, told NBC10 her mother was with her sister who had stepped out of the vehicle to go inside a nearby store at the time of the crash.

“[My aunt] stepped one foot on the steps and she heard a boom when she turned around,” Sylvia Abraham said. “All she saw was the car up in the air.”

Abraham was in tears as she described her mother.

“She’s a beautiful woman. She cared about everybody. She loved to do hair. She loved to cook. She was an amazing cook. But she will no longer cook no more,” she said. “Ya’ll need to stop hurting innocent people.”

Police recovered the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which investigators said was stolen in King of Prussia Wednesday morning.

Anybody with tips on this case or the whereabouts of Lowe are asked to submit a tip with the Philadelphia Police Department’s Accident Investigation Division by calling 215-685-3180, by calling 911, or online at phillypolice.com.

While the overall number of hit and run crashes are down this year compared to the past two years, the number of fatal hit and run crashes are up.

As of Dec. 26, there have been 31 deadly hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia in 2022, compared to 20 at the same time last year and 29 at the same time in 2020, according to Philadelphia Police.

In all, there have been 740 hit-and-run crashes in Philadelphia in 2022, compared to 906 at the same time last year and 847 at the same time in 2020.

Monday night, a driver killed a man and injured three other people in multiple hit-and-run crashes in North Philadelphia.

Termaine Saulsbury, 39, of Philadelphia, was arrested Wednesday along the 5500 block of Girard Avenue, police said.

Saulsbury allegedly shot Zulfigar Alvi in the Bronx on Nov. 22 as well as PPA worker Timothy McKenzie, 37, on Nov. 25 in Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood. Both survived despite being shot in the head.

The PPD released surveillance video of both shootings. In both, a slender man with a blue hooded jacket, gray pants, black boots, black gloves and what appears to be a ski mask walks up to his victims and pulls the trigger with his left hand before running off. The PPD said he used a silver revolver.

Philadelphia Police and NYPD detectives worked with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, SEPTA Police and U.S. Marshals to identify the gunman in both incidents as Saulsbury.

“The four detectives from both departments worked tirelessly over the last two weeks, putting together incredible evidence, working through hundreds and hundreds of hours of video from both states,” Philadelphia Police Captain Walker said. “Working together with the district attorney’s office here in Philadelphia and in New York, also working with the SEPTA Police Department, U.S. Marshals and the Philadelphia Parking Authority who’s been a tremendous assistance to this investigation to identify a suspect.”

The shooting of McKenzie, the PPA officer, happened on the 4500 block of Frankford Avenue underneath the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line elevated tracks. Investigators said Saulsbury drove up, shot the city employee from behind, and took off. He was struck in the ear and in his shoulder, police said.

A friend and coworker told NBC10 McKenzie is well-known on his beat near Frankford Avenue and Orthodox Street. He was only a couple hours away from the end of his shift.

The shooting of Alvi happened at a Sunoco gas station on the 2900 block of Boston Road in the Bronx. Friends said he had been working to support his family in Pakistan.

“[The NYPD] were able to capture video of the suspect fleeing the Sunoco market up there in their case,” Walker said. “Their victim is locked into the convenient store. The suspect walks up to the door, knocking on the door, looks like he’s asking for assistance. As the employee opens the door, [Saulsbury] shoots him twice, hitting him one time in the neck in the same area where he shot our 37-year-old parking authority employee.”

Captain Walker said McKenzie was released from the hospital and is currently recovering at home.

“Fortunately through the intervention of God, I believe, the bullet hit him in the side of the neck, bounced off his spine, back up out of the shoulder and lands in his jaw,” Captain Walker said. “That night the prognosis wasn’t very good. But even though the employee is in a lot of pain right now, he’s doing very well. He’s home for the holidays which is a good thing.”

Alvi, meanwhile, was in critical but stable condition at the hospital.

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A man who spent nearly 30 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of multiple murders was shot and killed in Philadelphia almost two years after being released, family members confirmed.

On Friday around 2:20 p.m., Philadelphia police responded to the 3000 block of West Lehigh Avenue for a report of a person with a gun. When they arrived they found 62-year-old Christopher Williams suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. 

Wiliams was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:27 p.m. that day. 

No arrests have been made and a weapon has not been recovered. 

In 1989, Williams, along with Theophalis Wilson, were convicted of murdering three men who were found shot to death in Philadelphia on the same day. 

Wilson was sentenced to life and prison without the possibility of parole while Williams was sentenced to death for the murders. Before that conviction, Williams was separately convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of a man named Michael Haynesworth.

Testimony from two men, one of whom was testifying in exchange for more lenient sentencing in his own six murder cases, had linked Williams and Wilson to the murders. 

In 2011 however, one of the men recanted his testimony against Williams and Wilson in relation to the triple murder in 1989. An expert also concluded that based on available blood evidence and the condition of the bodies, the three men had been killed where they were found rather than thrown from a moving van as the two men who testified against Williams and Wilson had claimed. 

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) also discovered there was a significant amount of evidence in Williams’ favor that had been withheld from the initial trial, including reports of alternate suspects and accounts that contradicted those of the men who testified against him. They also uncovered evidence showing the two men who testified against Williams had been induced to testify by the Commonwealth. 

Based on the new evidence, Williams was exonerated of his triple homicide conviction in December 2019 while Wilson was exonerated in January 2020. 

Despite this however, Williams remained in prison on the Haynesworth conviction. The CIU then revisited that case and found that the testimony against Williams was inconsistent with the available physical evidence. 

Following a recommendation from the CIU, Williams was exonerated a second time on February 9, 2021, and finally free from prison after 29 years. 

In December, 2021, Williams filed a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, 17 police detectives or their estates, two former assistant district attorneys and former district attorney Lynne Abraham for his wrongful convictions.

Williams is survived by his wife, five children, and several grandchildren and great grandchildren, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia Police Captain John Walker announced Wednesday there is a warrant for the arrest of 39-year-old Termaine Saulsbury of Philadelphia.

Saulsbury allegedly shot Zulfigar Alvi in the Bronx on Nov. 22 as well as PPA worker Timothy McKenzie, 37, on Nov. 25 in Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood. Both survived despite being shot in the head.

The PPD released surveillance video of both shootings. In both, a slender man with a blue hooded jacket, gray pants, black boots, black gloves and what appears to be a ski mask walks up to his victims and pulls the trigger with his left hand before running off. The PPD said he used a silver revolver.

Captain Walker said Philadelphia Police and NYPD detectives worked with the Philadelphia Parking Authority, SEPTA Police and U.S. Marshals to identify the gunman in both incidents as Saulsbury.

“The four detectives from both departments worked tirelessly over the last two weeks, putting together incredible evidence, working through hundreds and hundreds of hours of video from both states,” Captain Walker said. “Working together with the district attorney’s office here in Philadelphia and in New York, also working with the SEPTA Police Department, U.S. Marshals and the Philadelphia Parking Authority who’s been a tremendous assistance to this investigation to identify a suspect.”

The shooting of McKenzie, the PPA officer, happened on the 4500 block of Frankford Avenue underneath the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line elevated tracks. Investigators said Saulsbury drove up, shot the city employee from behind, and took off. He was struck in the ear and in his shoulder, police said.

A friend and coworker told NBC10 McKenzie is well-known on his beat near Frankford Avenue and Orthodox Street. He was only a couple hours away from the end of his shift.

The shooting of Alvi happened at a Sunoco gas station on the 2900 block of Boston Road in the Bronx. Friends said he had been working to support his family in Pakistan.

“[The NYPD] were able to capture video of the suspect fleeing the Sunoco market up there in their case,” Walker said. “Their victim is locked into the convenient store. The suspect walks up to the door, knocking on the door, looks like he’s asking for assistance. As the employee opens the door, [Saulsbury] shoots him twice, hitting him one time in the neck in the same area where he shot our 37-year-old parking authority employee.”

Captain Walker said McKenzie was released from the hospital and is currently recovering at home.

“Fortunately through the intervention of God, I believe, the bullet hit him in the side of the neck, bounced off his spine, back up out of the shoulder and lands in his jaw,” Captain Walker said. “That night the prognosis wasn’t very good. But even though the employee is in a lot of pain right now, he’s doing very well. He’s home for the holidays which is a good thing.”

Alvi, meanwhile, was in critical but stable condition at the hospital.

Police said Saulsbury may still be in the Philadelphia area. His last known address was on the 5600 block of Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. Walker also said Saulsbury is “known to police.”

“We’re very concerned that this individual could strike again,” Captain Walker said. “We believe both acts right now appear to be random and there was no rhyme or reason to these incidents. So that’s why we’re very concerned about this individual.”

The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Parking Authority are each offering separate $10,000 rewards for information that leads to Saulsbury’s arrest and conviction.

“We’re making it very clear to anybody, friends, family, who may be harboring this individual, that they will also be arrested,” Captain Walker said. “So if anybody knows Mr. Saulsbury or if he’s listening, we’re asking you to do the right thing. We have a warrant for your arrest. We’re asking you to turn yourself in. Or for family and friends who know where he’s at, to contact our tip line.”

Saulsbury is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who sees him is asked to immediately call 911. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling or texting 215-686-TIPS (8477).

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He was found severely beaten, naked, malnourished and stuffed inside a cardboard box on the side of a Philadelphia road. The brutality of his death shocked people’s consciousness – and the question of his identity for decades vexed both area residents and investigators alike.

Now the boy, whose headstone for years read only “America’s Unknown Child,” is finally known. Citing advancements in DNA technology, law enforcement officers and genealogical experts on Thursday put a name to the “Boy in the Box:” Joseph Augustus Zarelli of West Philadelphia. Born on Jan. 13, 1953, Zarelli was only four years old when he was murdered and his body abandoned in a wooded area in 1957.

“Now our lad is no longer that ‘Boy in the Box.’ He has a name, and I was raised to believe that when you say the name out loud of a loved one, that person still lives in spirit amongst us,” said Bill Fleisher, of the Vidocq Society. “Soon, through the good offices of Mr. Dave Drysdale and his team at the Ivy Hill Cemetery, the Vidocq society will put a name on that child’s grave. Joseph Augustus Zarelli will no longer be that ‘Boy in the Box’ and will no longer be unknown.”

The Vidocq Society is a volunteer group that provides assistance to law enforcement officers in resolving cold cases. Zarelli’s case had gone cold for 65 years, and many people who worked on it died as the decades dragged on.

Over the years, the mystery surrounding his identity led to some wild conjectures. Some thought he may have even been a Hungarian boy who arrived in the United States during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Fleisher previously told NBC10.

“When people think about the ‘Boy in the Box,’ a profound sadness is felt, not just because a child was murdered but because his entire identity and his rightful claim to own his existence was taken away,” Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. “And despite not knowing his name for 65 years, this child’s tragic story was always remembered by the community, the Philadelphia Police Department and our partners.”

After being buried, Zarelli’s body was exhumed in 1998 – by which time DNA technology had advanced significantly – and a postmortem examination was conducted. Portions of his remains were retained for further investigation, but complicating the case was the fact that the boy’s DNA had degraded, PPD Capt. Jason Smith said.

In 2019, Zarelli was once again exhumed. A forensic anthropologist examined the remains and obtained enough DNA to “apply modern forensic techniques,” Smith said. Experts were eventually able to identify Zarelli using the emerging technique of genetic genealogy, which uses DNA test results and traditional genealogical methods to create family history profiles and determine biological relationships between individuals.  

The 2019 results were uploaded to DNA databases and “interpreted” by genealogists working on the case, Smith said. Based on the results, detectives were able to track down possible relatives of Zarelli on his mother’s side. More testing and investigation followed, which led to the identification of Zarelli’s mother.

Through a court order, detectives were then able to obtain from the state the birth, death and adoption records of all the children born to the mother between 1944 and 1956. The order yielded “responsive results:” the birth certificates of two children born to the mother and who were previously known to investigators, one of whom had provided a DNA sample, Smith said.

The third result was the birth certificate of a boy born to the mother in 1953. On that birth certificate was the name of the child’s father. Based on research from detectives and genealogists, the detectives contacted possible relatives of the child on his father’s side, Smith said.

Zarelli’s father was identified after genealogists established DNA connections on both sides of the family that could point only to that progenitor, said Colleen Fitzpatrick, the founder and president of Identifiers International, which specializes in genetic genealogy.

Homicide investigators, as well as PPD Forensic Laboratory Manager Ryan Gallagher, then met with Acting Philadelphia Medical Examiner Dr. Albert Chu, who consulted with the genetic genealogists involved in the investigation, Smith said.

“Dr. Chu indicated that based on the facts presented and the conclusion of the genetic genealogists, the death certificate for the unknown child, OME No. 57-0863, would be amended to reflect the child’s birth name: Joseph Augustus Zarelli,” the police captain said.

While detectives have determined the identities of the boy’s parents – both now deceased – they will not publicly disclose them yet out of respect for Zarelli’s living siblings, Smith said.

What he would say is that Zarelli had lived near the intersection of 61st and Market streets in West Philadelphia and was never reported missing. After his death, he was found in the Fox Chase neighborhood, in the northeastern portion of the city. The area has since been developed with homes.

Zarelli had blue eyes. When police found his body on the side of Susquehanna Road, he had brown hair that was “crudely cut close to the scalp,” Smith said. His body was bruised, and an autopsy revealed he had suffered “multiple abrasions, contusions, a subdural hemorrhage and pleural effusions,” according to the captain.

“In his very short life, it was apparent that this child experienced horrors that no one – no one – should ever be subjected to,” PPD Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.

Identifying the child is only the first step in what remains an active homicide investigation, one that Smith acknowledged may never be solved. Investigators hope someone who may remember the boy will come forward to provide clues about who may have killed him.

“We may not make an arrest. We may never make an identification. But we’re going to do our darndest to try,” Smith said.

The PPD’s Office of Forensic Science has now established a forensic genetic genealogy program to assist the department and the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office with investigations involving the identification of human remains or unknown suspects in criminal cases, said Gallagher, the PPD’s forensic laboratory manager.

The program has initiated tests in “dozens” of cases, ranging from 1957 to 2022, Gallagher said.

“Joseph Augustus Zarelli represents the first identification of human remains using forensic genetic genealogy as a result of this collaboration,” he said. “While this is the first, it will definitely not be the last identification that is made. Our goal for the project is that there will never be another unidentified homicide victim in the City of Philadelphia.”

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The Philadelphia Police Department on Friday said that the New York Police Department told them the Nov. 22 shooting of Zulfigar Alvi in the Bronx could involve the same gunman who shot PPA worker Timothy McKenzie, 37, on Nov. 25 in Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood. Both survived despite being shot in the head.

The PPD released surveillance video of both shootings. In both, a slender man with a blue hooded jacket, gray pants, black boots, black gloves and what appears to be a ski mask walks up to his victims and pulls the trigger with his left hand before running off. The PPD said he used a silver revolver.

The shooting of McKenzie, the PPA officer, happened on the 4500 block of Frankford Avenue underneath the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line elevated tracks. Investigators said the gunman drove up, shot the city employee from behind, and took off. He was struck in the ear and in his shoulder, police said.

A friend and coworker told NBC10 McKenzie is well-known on his beat near Frankford Avenue and Orthodox Street. He was only a couple hours away from the end of his shift.

The shooting of Alvi happened at a Sunoco gas station on the 2900 block of Boston Road in the Bronx. Friends said he had been working to support his family in Pakistan.

As of Dec. 1, McKenzie was listed in stable condition. Alvi, meanwhile, was in critical but stable condition.

The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Parking Authority are each offering separate $10,000 rewards for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the gunman.

The gunman should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone who sees him is asked to immediately call 911. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling or texting 215-686-TIPS (8477).

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Ahmad Shareef, 34, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder, possession of an instrument of crime and abuse of corpse.

Police responded to a home along the 300 block of Magee Avenue around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a 911 call. When they arrived they found the body of the 41-year-old woman with a severed head on the kitchen floor.

Philadelphia police later identified her as Leila Al Raheel.

“Upon arrival, we found a witness as well as a victim laying on the floor inside,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Michael McCarrick said. “As a result of discussion with the witness, we identified a person of interest who has subsequently been detained.”

Police said Shareef fled on foot and was captured about six blocks away from the home near Robbins and Rising Sun avenues.

Investigators told NBC10 Raheel was in a domestic partnership with Shareef and lived with him inside the home.

“The woman…they treat her like a slave,” Nyjha Richardson, a neighbor, told NBC10. “She runs in and out of the house barefoot. She really never goes anywhere else. She carries all of their bags in. They scream at her.”

Shareef is currently in custody and ineligible for bail.

Richardson said she had witnessed several problems at the home in the past, including Shareef running outside half naked and threatening neighbors to the point in which one family moved away.

“There’s always fights,” Richardson said. “Always quarrels. People in and out of the house constantly. It’s never good. The yellow house is the worst house on the block!”

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HELP: The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or 800-787-3224 (TTY) provides people in distress, or those around them, with 24-hour support.

The partially caught-on-camera chase began after patrol officers spotted a dark-colored Honda that investigators said fit the description of a vehicle they were searching for in connection to a prior shooting near Kensington and Allegheny avenues in Philadelphia shortly after 9:30 p.m.

As the officers notified dispatchers, the driver of the vehicle — an Accord with specific blue-tinted after-market headlights — sped off and continued through the city’s Kensington neighborhood before traveling onto I-95 northbound, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

The driver continued driving into Northeast Philadelphia and then crossed the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, police said.

Léelo en español aquí.

Philly police notified New Jersey police departments that the car was coming their way. The driver continued for some time along Route 73 through South Jersey communities before entering Evesham Township, New Jersey, investigators said.

The driver then pulled into a funeral home’s parking lot at Route 73 and Evesham Road, got out of the vehicle and ran off into a wooded area.

SkyForce10 captured exclusive video of the pursuit. The news chopper was over the scene as responding Evesham Township police officers took the man in his 20s into custody shortly after. Evesham police said the arrest happened without further incident.

Police found the man’s ID inside the car, which they impounded, Small said.

Small said that the man captured after the chase is being questioned as a person of interest in the chase.

The car initially appeared to be similar to the one used in both Saturday night’s shooting in Kensington that wounded nine people as well as an early October shooting that happened in the same area in the Philadelphia neighborhood, police said.

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At Least 9 Wounded, 2 Critically, in Shooting Outside Philadelphia Bar, Police Say

But, later on Thursday morning, Philadelphia police released information that the car — which was towed back to Philly to be searched — wasn’t believed to be involved in those earlier shootings, neither was the driver who was taken into custody.

“The investigation into Saturday night’s shooting and the shooting on 3100 Kensington Avenue also remains active and ongoing,” police wrote. “Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the vehicle or its occupants is asked to call the Shooting Investigation Unit at 215-686-8270 or dial 911.”

No charges were filed as of Thursday morning.

Originally, Evesham police feared there could have been a second person who fled from the car. They continued to search overnight, but were unable to “corroborate the existence of a second suspect,” Evesahm Township Police Chief Walt Miller wrote on Facebook.

“There is no present threat to the public in connection with this incident,” Miller wrote early Thursday.

No injuries were reported during the at times high-speed chase through two states.

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The man, deemed “The Chicken Man,” became a viral sensation that had a whole lot of people showing up to an abandoned pier in South Philadelphia.

It all started when someone took a picture of a flyer posted in South Philly of a man named Alexander Tominsky inviting people to watch him eat an entire rotisserie chicken in one sitting.

Tominsky said he’s been eating a rotisserie chicken every day for the last 39 days, even documenting a part of his journey online.

The big event was to mark the 40^th chicken.

There was some doubt about the event, if it was real, and if anyone would show up. But videos circulating on social media showed dozens of people watching Tominsky. 

You can’t say Philly doesn’t support its heroes.

Folks cheered him on as the “chicken man” took the last bite with Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” playing in the background.

Tominsky later thanked the people for coming out.

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Philadelphia Police Department Inspector D.F. Pace said the victims were shot near Kensington and Allegheny avenues, adding that there are likely more victims than the initial nine. Initially, two were in critical condition and seven were stable, Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford said. However, that changed into the later morning hours as five people were upgraded to critical, police said.

The shooting happened around 10:45 p.m. outside a bar in the area, Pace said. The gunmen got out of a black vehicle and opened fire on a crowd on the sidewalk before getting back in the vehicle and fleeing, Stanford said.

There were police officers in the area who heard the gunshots, he noted. “Our men and women are where they’re supposed to be in the sense of being out here patrolling, but we have some brazen individuals in this city that don’t care. They don’t care how many police officers are out here, and some of them don’t care in terms of how many people are out here,” the deputy police commissioner said.

The victims ranged in age from 23 to 40, according to Philadelphia police. All but one were men. They were rushed to Temple University Hospital by the responding officers before paramedics had arrived.

As of Sunday morning police had not made an arrest, and they weren’t immediately able to determine a motive.

NBC10 spoke with state Rep. Amen Brown, a Democrat who represents West Philadelphia, who said he received a call “from the chief” and got out of bed to get to the scene of the shooting.

Brown laid blame for the city’s gun violence on Mayor Jim Kenney, the office of District Attorney Larry Krasner, and “weak City Council members.” “Innocent women and children are dying every single day, and it’s got to stop,” Brown said, adding that solutions will only be found with legislators working across party lines.

Kenney tweeted he was “appalled and devastated” by the “despicable, brazen act of gun violence.” He added “my heart is with the family and loved ones of those injured, and with everyone impacted by this tragedy.”

As of Saturday night, the PPD had recorded at least 447 homicides in the city. At least 417 of those killings were committed with guns, according to a city controller’s office tally, which was last updated on Nov. 3.

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Joe Morgan. Eddie Murray. Garry Maddox. Ken Singleton. Al Bumbry. Disco Dan Ford. And plenty more that night in Baltimore.

“There were quite a few of us,” Matthews recalled.

When fans watch the Houston Astros and Phillies line up this week to begin the Fall Classic, it will be a much different picture.

To be sure, Houston’s Jose Altuve and Philadelphia’s Jean Segura are among scores of Latin players helping keep big league rosters diverse.

But for the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier, there project to be no U.S.-born Black players in this World Series.

Zero.

“That is eye opening,” said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. “It is somewhat startling that two cities that have high African American populations, there’s not a single Black player.”

“It lets us know there’s obviously a lot of work to be done to create opportunities for Black kids to pursue their dream at the highest level,” he said.

Robinson debuted in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and played in the World Series that year. Since then, the 1950 matchup between the New York Yankees and Phillies has been the only World Series without a Black player.

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Houston and Philadelphia will announce their 26-man rosters several hours before Game 1 on Friday night at Minute Maid Park, where Dusty Baker, a Black outfielder for the 1981 champion Los Angeles Dodgers, manages the Astros.

Starting in 1954 when Willie Mays and the New York Giants played against Larry Doby and Cleveland, every single team to reach the World Series had at least one U.S.-born Black player until the 2005 Astros did not.

During that half-century, Black greats such as Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Rickey Henderson and Frank Robinson commanded the October stage. In 1979 alone, Willie Stargell and Dave Parker were among 10 Black players on the “We Are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates champions.

For much of that time, baseball was clearly the dominant game in the United States, the national pastime. Over the years, as basketball and football increased in popularity, baseball became more expensive with an emphasis on travel teams and elite showcases.

“Kids started shifting to other sports,” Matthews said.

One of Matthews’ sons, Gary Jr., was an All-Star outfielder. Another son works in the commissioner’s office with diversity programs.

By 2020, when the Dodgers beat Tampa Bay, Los Angeles star Mookie Betts was the only Black player in the World Series.

At the All-Star Game this summer at Dodger Stadium, Betts wore a T-shirt with the message: “We need more Black people at the stadium.”

But on the field this weekend, despite encouraging indicators and multi-layered efforts by MLB, it will be a World Series shutout for the first time in over seven decades.

“It’s the exclamation point,” said Richard Lapchick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida.

“It’s been a story that’s been ongoing since the late 1980s, the decline of Black baseball players,” he said.

Lapchick, lead author for his group’s annual reports on diversity hiring practices in sports, said Black players made up 7.2% of opening day rosters this year. That dipped from 7.6% last year and marked the lowest since study data was first collected in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.

The Phillies had no Black players on their opening roster this year for the first time since 1959. Roman Quinn, a Black backup outfielder, played 23 games before being released.

Philadelphia power-hitting rookie Darick Hall made his debut in late June and played 41 games — his mother is white and his father is Black and white, and he identifies as multiracial. Hall wasn’t on the Phillies’ roster for any of the first three rounds this postseason and isn’t expected to be on the World Series roster.

Houston lost in the World Series last year with Michael Brantley, a Black outfielder, on the roster. Brantley is out for the season this year because of a shoulder injury. Relief pitcher Josh James is also Black and on the team’s 40-man roster, but he had arm surgery in early October.

MLB had 38% players of color on opening day rosters, including Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Yuli Gurriel, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez of the Astros and Segura, Ranger Suárez and Seranthony Domínguez of the Phillies.

Many Afro Latino players embrace Black identity, yet perhaps not for the same reasons that Black U.S. players do. Race and skin color hold a different currency in places like the Dominican Republic, Panama, Cuba and Belize.

Betts, San Diego’s Josh Bell, Cleveland’s Triston McKenzie, Atlanta’s Michael Harris II and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Hicks were among the Black players whose teams were eliminated earlier this month in the playoffs.

Kendrick and others see signs of more on the way.

“I am optimistic. I am,” he said.

Last summer, for the first time in MLB draft history, four of the first five players selected were Black.

All four, along with more than 300 big leaguers including Harris, Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene, Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes and Milwaukee’s Devin Williams, took part in MLB diversity-based initiatives such as the MLB Youth Academy, DREAM Series and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program.

MLB also has pledged $150 million in the next decade to the Players Alliance, an organization of current and former players working to increase Black involvement at all levels of the sport.

Chicago White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams is the only Black leader of baseball operations for a major league team.

“I think surely but slowly, we’re going to see a pendulum shift,” Kendrick said.

“The problem is we’re not patient. I don’t like instant grits. I’m from Georgia — I like mine slow cooked,” he said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that 36-year-old Jason Rivera shook his head as the foreperson of a federal court jury that deliberated for more than six hours announced the guilty verdicts Tuesday on counts including conspiracy, kidnapping and extortion.

“This is crazy,” Rivera muttered as his attorney motioned to him to stay silent while the judge dismissed court following the verdict, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison, the Inquirer reported.

The Queens resident was one of six men charged in what authorities described as a plot that led to the August 2014 deaths of Vu “Kevin” Huynh, 31, and his 28-year-old brother Viet over a $300,000 drug debt.

Authorities said the brothers were kidnapped and tortured before they were driven to the Schuylkill River, stabbed repeatedly, their faces covered with duct tape and their legs weighted down with cement before they were tossed into the water. A third man was able to escape and flag down a passing motorist.

Defense attorney Thomas Mirigliano argued that his client has been wrongfully accused and noted that no cellphone records link him to the area on the night of the crime. He objected to prosecutors pointing to a forearm tattoo of a line from the 1990 movie “Goodfellas” as evidence of his client’s role as a drug gang enforcer and debt collector.

Last year, Lam Trieu pleaded guilty to extortion, drug and conspiracy counts, acknowledging having reached out to a longtime associate to collect on a debt owed to a California marijuana supplier from drugs fronted to the brothers. He wasn’t charged with the kidnapping or murders.

Tam Minh Le, 52, a native of Vietnam, has been sentenced to death in the case. Two other men await sentencing on federal charges in the case.

A teenager from Delaware used his own money to buy a ticket to the Phillies’ game last week at Citizens Bank Park. Cody Newton, 16, wanted to see a playoff game, but more than that, he wanted to feel like he was there with his father.

“He says, ‘I’m here by myself.’ And we were like, ‘how old are you?’ And he said, ‘sixteen.’ I was like, ‘how did you get up here?’ He was like, ‘I took an Uber,’” said Chris Greenwell, a Phillies season-ticket holder who met Cody at the game.

Cody said he hadn’t gone to a Phillies game since the loss of his dad last December. Phillies games were their “thing,” and he knew his dad would want to be with him in their left field seats, watching the playoffs together – so that’s the seat Cody bought.

“I immediately thought about him and how happy he’d be, and I was also very happy about that,” Cody said. “I didn’t go to a single game without him. I always went to games with him all the time.”

Chris and his friends brought Cody right into their pack. “We grabbed him and gave him a big hug and he was one of the boys with us the whole game,” he said.

“It blew me away,” Chris continued through tears. “With me being a single parent myself, and I was brought up without a father, it was really a touching thing to see him do that. And it brought tears to my eyes like it does now talking about it.”

Chris posted about Cody on Facebook and hundreds of other people were touched, too. One of them, John Landoll, saw the post and decided that if it was okay with Cody’s mother, he would take Cody back to the Park to see the Phillies in the National League Championship Series.

“He was like ‘I just don’t understand why you’d do this for me but thank you,’” John said. “I told him I’m a dad, I still have my dad and I can’t imagine being 16 and not having my dad.”

⚾ Get fired up for the Phillies’ playoff run with the Rally for Red October Bus Tour. Click here to find out when it will be stopping by you. ⚾

Cody said he was speechless. He told everyone at school he’s going to a championship game.

And it gets even better. Charles Jaramillo Limo Service also saw the post and took the crew to the game in a stretch Hummer limo on Friday for Game 3 of the NLCS.

Cody also got the chance to meet former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and former Phillies player Ryan Howard during Friday’s game.

Cody’s new friends can’t replace Dad, but they made the night special for a hardworking kid who misses seeing the Phillies with his pop.

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One of the ubiquitous scenes when teams make a deep playoff run is the local TV live shots, featuring superfans of all shapes, sizes, and colors, displaying their fandom the best way they know how.

Sometimes these are super entertaining, for all the right reasons, and, often, for some wrong reasons.

What happened in San Diego this morning… was not entertaining.

A group of seven middle-aged men appeared on KUSI’s “Good Morning San Diego”, all in Padres gear to perform their hip-hop tribute to their favorite baseball team.

My goodness. I’m embarrassed for them. The level of cringe here broke my cringe-o-meter. At what point, at what blood alcohol level, was this idea conceived, and this “song” written?

Guys! Guys! Guys! I just wrote the worst rap ever about the Padres! And you guys can bob back and forth and point in the back while I bust my rhymes!

Moreover, once the song – and let’s not forget the choreography – was assembled, and rehearsed, who thought it was a good idea to share this with anyone? Let alone go find a TV station, and become social media fodder?

I can’t imagine the grief suffered by any of the children of these men. I would absolutely ask my parents to move, or transfer schools, and begin counting the days until I could move far, far away from what happened here today.

I can’t stop watching, and every time, somehow, it gets worse.

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If you’ve watched one game from the 2022 Eagles, it seems you’ve watched them all.

On Sunday night the NFL’s last undefeated team was explosive in the first half, woeful in the third quarter, and good enough to salt away the win in the fourth.

Beating the Cowboys is never a given, especially when they boast a defense this talented, but the win could’ve felt better… even though it still felt pretty darn good.

Let’s overreact to the Birds’ sixth straight win to start this season:

1. Seriously, the second half needs to get fixed

It’s going to feel like deja vu, but we’re once again talking about a largely lifeless second half from the Eagles… and it seems like this problem isn’t going away. 

Which is bad news.

The Eagles have just four second-half touchdowns this season through six games, two of which came in the first game of the season against a sieve-like Detroit Lions defense.

Sure, the Lane Johnson injury didn’t help. And yes, part of this is that they build huge leads in the first half and then coast.

But I don’t want them to coast. I need the same foot-on-the-gas aggression they show in the first and second quarters to carry over to the second half. 

The problem, however, is aggression doesn’t always need to be passing the ball. The Eagles had two drives and just nine plays in the third quarter. For some reason, despite missing Lane Johnson coming out of the locker room, seven of those plays were passes.

It’s the same thing I was frustrated about last week: why do Shane Steichen and Nick Sirianni inexplicably forget that they’re great at running the ball? And that this team is uniquely built to successfully run the ball because of the guy who plays quarterback?

Instead of just dropping Hurts back and trying to attack with straight-ahead passes, how about you show the same creativity that you showed on this play design, which wound up in the end zone:

That’s aggression. That’s getting the most out of your personnel. That’s attacking football.

This Dallas team is good. There’s no shame in the game being close. But there is shame in watching a game completely flit away and out of your control when you’d built a huge lead, especially when you’re the better team. The Eagles are one of the league’s best teams. Can’t happen.

Luckily Sirianni and Steichen woke up and remembered that running is actually good, stringing together a game-clinching fourth-quarter series with runs aplenty just like last week. What took them so long? Great question.

There’s so much to like about what Nick Sirianni is doing with this team, but the second-half struggles are a real concern and I need them to figure it out during the week off.

2. James Bradberry is one of Howie’s best deals ever

Brandon Brooks. Malcolm Jenkins. Evan Mathis. Alshon Jeffery.

Howie Roseman has made a number of incredible free agency moves that have shaped the Eagles during his time as general manager, and if James Bradberry keeps playing at this level it’s clear the one-year deal he inked Bradberry to back in May will join those ranks.

Because right now the Eagles basically have two CB1s. They could wind up with a pair of corners in the Pro Bowl. It feels like a throwback to the days of Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard, and it’s amazing.

Bradberry absolutely balled out Sunday night against Cooper Rush and the Cowboys, looking every bit as spry, athletic, and anticipatory as he has all season long. 

The 29-year-old corner was crucial in creating the first of Rush’s interceptions Sunday night, deflecting a ball intended for Michael Gallup into C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s awaiting hands:

Then in the second quarter Bradberry flashed on a crucial fourth-down stop, soaring to break up a pass aimed at Peyton Hendershot:

He was generally all over the field, making big plays and keeping the Cowboys under wraps.

It certainly helped that the Eagles were facing Cooper Rush instead of Dak Prescott, and the Birds admittedly haven’t faced a murderer’s row of quarterback talent this season.

But you can only play the guys you line up against, and so far Bradberry has been the exact piece the Eagles needed at corner across from Slay to really unlock this defense’s potential.

3. Michael Clay should be gone during the bye week

Michael Clay has been the Eagles’ special teams coordinator for a mere 23 regular season games, but I’ve seen plenty. It’s time to turn the page to a new face at the position.

Jake Elliott is still a monster from distance, but Arryn Siposs is actively hurting this team, punt and kickoff coverage could stand to be improved, and on a team with very few weaknesses special teams certainly feel like one right now.

Last year Eagles special teams finished a woeful 21st in Rick Gosselin’s trusted end-of-year special teams rankings last season, and this year things don’t feel any better.

On Sunday night, a miserably-timed KaVontae Turpin kick return right before halftime allowed the Cowboys to get points and get their first sniff of momentum which then ballooned in the second half.

Inexplicably, the Eagles still kicked to Turpin again in the second half and he nearly broke another one off for a big chunk were it not for a Dallas penalty.

Special teams were a true strength during the Chip Kelly years, and were perfectly fine during Doug Pederson’s tenure, but Clay’s time as the ST coordinator under Sirianni has been a disaster and eventually this unit’s poor performance is going to bite them.

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Phillies-Padres NLCS game times, broadcast details and ticket info originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The 2022 NLCS matchup the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres is set and game times were revealed Sunday for the best-of-seven series.

Game 1 in San Diego: Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 8:03 p.m. ET on FS1

Game 2 in San Diego: Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 4:35 p.m. ET on Fox

Game 3 in Philadelphia: Friday, Oct. 21 at 7:37 p.m. ET on FS1

Game 4 in Philadelphia: Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:45 p.m. ET on Fox

Game 5 in Philadelphia: Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2:37 p.m. ET on FS1

Game 6 in San Diego: Monday, Oct. 24 at 8:03 p.m. ET on FS1

Game 7 in San Diego: Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 8:03 p.m. ET on Fox

A limited number of tickets for Games 3, 4 and 5 at Citizens Bank Park will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Monday at Phillies.com. Fans can purchase up to four tickets for one NLCS game only while supplies last. All tickets will be mobile via the free MLB Ballpark app.

Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are lined up start for the Phillies in Games 1 and 2, respectively, though neither team has spelled out its rotation. The Phils will be able to start Wheeler and Nola twice apiece on regular rest within the series’ first six games if it goes that far.

The only off day in the series comes between Games 2 and 3 as the teams switch coasts for the first time.

The Padres are likely to start Yu Darvish in Game 1 and could start left-hander Blake Snell in Game 2 on regular rest.

It will be Darvish’s 10th postseason start. He beat the Mets in the wild-card round and the Dodgers in the NLDS, allowing four runs in 12 innings across the two starts.

Snell, whose errant fastball broke Bryce Harper’s thumb in San Diego on June 25, has made starts of 3⅓ and 5⅓ innings, pitching well in his start against the Dodgers.

Joe Musgrove started for the Padres in their Game 4 win Saturday night, so he wouldn’t be on normal rest until Game 3 back in Philly.

The Padres also have left-hander Sean Manaea and righty Mike Clevinger. Manaea was lit up four times in his final 11 regular-season starts but also made 16 quality starts this season. Clevinger, who pitched five scoreless innings against the Phillies all the way back in May, struggled in his start against the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Rampaging Phillies finish off Braves, advance to NLCS for first time since 2010 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Breaking a 10-year postseason drought apparently wasn’t enough for these Phillies.

They’re sticking around longer than expected in this October baseball tournament. They’re riding a wave of special chemistry. They’re sending division champions home for the winter. And, of course, they’re dreaming big.

On a gorgeous fall Saturday afternoon, the Phils booked their ticket to the National League Championship Series with an emotional 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 of the NL Division Series.

The Phillies won the series three-games-to-one with the last two wins coming in front of huge crowds at Citizens Bank Park.

After squeaking into the postseason with 87 wins and the sixth and final NL playoff spot, the Phillies have dispatched a pair of division champions in the 93-win St. Louis Cardinals and the 101-win Atlanta Braves. 

The Phillies will open play in their first NLCS since 2010 on Tuesday night, somewhere in Southern California, against the winner of the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Diego Padres division series. The Padres took a two-games-to-one lead into Game 4 Saturday night.

The Phils have never played the Padres in a postseason series. They have played the Dodgers five times in the NLCS and advanced to the World Series three times.

After splitting the first two games of the NLDS in Atlanta, the Phillies came home Friday afternoon and used a six-run third inning, highlighted by homers from Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper, to beat the Braves, 9-1, in front of 45,538 wild fans who’d waited too long for postseason baseball to return to Philadelphia.

The momentum of Friday’s win carried over to Saturday. Brandon Marsh, who ignited the six-run third inning with a walk Friday, belted a three-run homer against Charlie Morton with one out in the second inning and the Phils were off and running as the crowd of 45,660 waved rally towels in the stands.

An inning after Marsh’s homer into the right-field seats, J.T. Realmuto greeted reliever Collin McHugh with a laser beam to center field. The ball hit off the angular outfield wall and bounced away from Braves center fielder Michael Harris II. Right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. did not move to back up Harris as the ball hit the wall. By the time Harris retrieved it, Realmuto was gone, around the bases in a flash. The first inside-the-park home run in Phillies postseason history gave the team a 4-1 lead.

Having already used their top three starting pitchers — Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez — in the series, the Phillies went into the game with a pitching plan that consisted of getting outs from a long list of arms.

The plan worked. Six Phillies pitchers combined on 27 outs and sent the defending World Series champions home on just three runs. 

Noah Syndergaard got the start against Atlanta’s righty-heavy batting order. He had not started a game in two weeks so the hope was to get nine outs from him. The right-hander delivered those nine outs and allowed just one run on a solo homer by Orlando Arcia.

Next up was Andrew Bellatti. He knocked down three outs while allowing a run on a solo homer by Matt Olson as the Braves cut the Phillies’ lead to 4-2.

Brad Hand was next. He got three outs in the fifth to protect the two-run lead.

Jose Alvarado recorded three outs in the sixth and saw his mates score three more runs in the bottom of the inning to go up, 7-2. The lefty stayed on for the seventh, allowed a solo homer, but recorded two outs to get the ball into Zach Eflin’s right hand.

Eflin racked up four outs, three via strikeout, before Harper electrified the crowd with a homer in the bottom of the eighth and Seranthony Dominguez came on for the ninth and closed out the win.

When it was over, Phillies players danced on the lawn at Citizens Bank Park and retreated to the clubhouse for their third champagne celebration in less than two weeks.

Braves take advantage of Phillies’ miscues, even NLDS at a game apiece originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ATLANTA — The National League Division Series between the Phillies and Atlanta Braves is tied at a game apiece.

The Braves evened the best-of-five series Wednesday night with a 3-0 win at Truist Park.

Game 3 will be played Friday afternoon in Philadelphia.

The Phillies gave away Game 2 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Zack Wheeler, who retired 17 of the first 18 men he faced, hit Braves leadoff man Ronald Acuña Jr. with a first-pitch fastball with two outs in the frame.

The hit batsman started a chain of events that saw the Phillies give up three runs in the inning.

With Acuña Jr. on first base, Wheeler issued his first walk of the game on a 3-2 pitch to Dansby Swanson. The next batter, Matt Olson, stroked a 1-2 slider on the ground to first baseman Rhys Hoskins. What appeared to be a makeable, inning-ending play, turned into the first run of the game when Hoskins could not make a backhand play on the ball. The eyes said the play was an error, but the Atlanta-based official scorer awarded Olson an RBI single.

After Hoskins’ misplay, the Braves scored two more runs, one on an infield hit and another on a clean base hit by Travis d’Arnaud.

That was the ball game because the Phillies’ offense did nothing to support Wheeler. The Phils had just three hits in the game. Atlanta right-hander Kyle Wright held the Phillies to two hits over six scoreless innings.

Kyle Schwarber and Hoskins went 0 for 8 with four strikeouts at the top of the order.

Hoskins is 1 for 18 with six strikeouts so far in the postseason.

Schwarber is 0 for 16 with eight strikeouts.

Schwarber turned around the Phillies’ season batting leadoff in a huge month of June. Manager Rob Thomson is reluctant to take him out of his preferred leadoff spot.

“I’ve given no thought to it because that’s who Schwarb is,” Thomson said before the game. “He goes through some down times. But when they’re good times and he’s hot, he’s as hot as anybody. So we’ll just wait it out.”

The Phils had a good chance to get to Wright in the second inning. Bryce Harper doubled and moved up on a fly ball by Nick Castellanos. Harper was stranded at third when Alec Bohm grounded out and Brandon Marsh struck out.

The start of the game was delayed 2 hours, 53 minutes by rain. The delay did not bother the starting pitchers.

Wheeler retired the first nine batters he faced and got through the first five innings on just 50 pitches.

His night unraveled when he hit Acuña Jr. with two outs in the sixth. After getting hit near the inside of his right elbow, Acuña Jr. was tended to by Braves’ athletic trainers for a few minutes behind home plate. During the delay, Wheeler, who grew up and went to high school just 45 minutes from Truist Field, was booed loudly by the sellout crowd of 42,735.

The boos turned to cheers when Wheeler walked Swanson and got louder when Hoskins could not handle Olson’s ground ball.

Because of the late start, the Phillies changed their travel plans and pushed back their charter flight to Philadelphia to Thursday morning. 

The Phils will play their first home postseason game since October 7, 2011 on Friday afternoon. Aaron Nola will start that game for the Phillies.

The Braves have not named a starter. Spencer Strider, who dominated the Phillies this season but missed time in September with an oblique strain, is a possibility. So is Charlie Morton.

Strider was 4-0 against the Phillies this season. He allowed just three runs in 21⅔ innings and struck out 34. If Strider starts, he might be held to just a couple of innings because he has not pitched since September 18 when he gave up just one hit and struck out 10 in six innings against the Phillies. 

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ST. LOUIS — Back on opening day, before the first pitch was thrown, Bryce Harper addressed a sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

After 10 seasons of no playoffs, fans were starved for a winner.

Harper threw them some red meat.

“Let’s go have a party on Broad Street,” he told the crowd.

It takes a few little parties before you can have the big one and on Saturday night, the Phillies had their second little party in a week.

Five days after clinching their first playoff berth since 2011 and spraying champagne in Houston, the Phillies popped corks again as they advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 2-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of the National League wild-card series in front of a huge crowd of 48,515 at Busch Stadium.

The Phillies won the best-of-three series in two games. They will move on to the NL Division Series and a date with a familiar foe, the NL East Champion Atlanta Braves. Game 1 of that best-of-five series begins Tuesday night in Atlanta. It will be the Phillies’ fourth trip to Atlanta this season. They went 8-11 against the Braves. The two teams do have some postseason history. The Phillies beat the Braves in the 1993 NL Championship Series.

Lefty Ranger Suarez will be ready to go in Game 1 for the Phillies, who have so far received outstanding starting pitching this postseason.

Zack Wheeler pitched 6⅓ shutout innings in the Phils’ 6-3 win over the Cardinals in Game 1 on Friday afternoon.

Aaron Nola followed Wheeler with 6⅔ scoreless innings in Saturday night’s series clincher. The right-hander scattered four hits, walked one and struck out six. Five of his strikeouts came with runners on base. He got two of them with a runner on second base in the first inning and two more with a runner on first in the sixth. Those strikeouts in the sixth came against the Cardinals’ two most dangerous hitters, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.

Nola exited with a runner on first base in the seventh. Jose Alvarado came on and ended the inning then gave up a walk with one out in the eighth. With the game on the line, manager Rob Thomson went to right-hander Seranthony Dominguez as menacing Albert Pujols strode to the plate. Dominguez gave up a single to Pujols to bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate then registered the two biggest outs of his career on strikeouts of Goldschmidt and Arenado.

Zach Eflin got the final three outs to save Nola’s win. Eflin allowed a pair of two-out hits before retiring Tommy Edman, the potential winning run, to end the game.

What a week it was for Nola. The longest-tenured Phillie retired the first 20 batters he faced in Monday night’s playoff clincher, a 3-0 win in Houston, then came back five days later and delivered the goods in the first postseason start of his career. Over his last two starts, both of huge importance to the team, Nola has pitched 13⅓ scoreless innings.

That’s a big-game pitcher.

Monday night in Houston, Nola was backed by three solo homers — two by Kyle Schwarber and one by Bryson Stott.

In Saturday night’s series clincher, Nola got an early run thanks to a solo homer by Harper against Miles Mikolas in the second inning. The right-hander Mikolas hung a first-pitch breaking ball and Harper picked it up immediately, stayed on his legs and unleashed a smooth and powerful swing, sending the ball into the right-field seats. The homer was Harper’s first since September 24 and just his fourth in 36 games since coming off the injured list August 26.

The Phillies added a second run in the fifth inning when Alec Bohm doubled against Mikolas, moved up on a bunt by Brandon Marsh and scored on a sacrifice fly by Schwarber.

While the Phillies danced in triumph on the Busch Stadium lawn, two great Cardinals walked off the field for the last time — in defeat. The slugger Pujols and catcher Yadier Molina, both future Hall of Famers, played their games. Both had previously said this would be their last season.

Pujols and Molina were both part of the 2011 Cardinals team that went on to win the World Series after stunning a 102-win Phillies team in the Division Series. The Phillies were eliminated in a painful 1-0 loss in Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park. That was the night Roy Halladay left it all on the mound and Ryan Howard crumpled to the ground with a ruptured Achilles tendon, never to be the same.

All these years later, a Cardinals season has ended, and a Phillies’ season goes on.

A Broad Street Party?

There’s still a chance.

The move comes after community activists and families of some of those inmates raised the need for a formal apology. It also follows a string of apologies from various U.S. cities over historically racist policies or wrongdoing in the wake of the nationwide racial reckoning after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The city allowed University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Albert Kligman to conduct the dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments that intentionally exposed about 300 inmates to viruses, fungus, asbestos and chemical agents including dioxin — a component of Agent Orange. The vast majority of Kligman’s experiments were performed on Black men, many of whom were awaiting trial and trying to save money for bail, and many of whom were illiterate, the city said.

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Kligman, who would go on to pioneer the acne and wrinkle treatment Retin-A, died in 2010. Many of the former inmates would have lifelong scars and health issues from the experiments. A group of the inmates filed a lawsuit against the university and Kligman in 2000 that was ultimately thrown out because of a statute of limitations.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in the apology that the experiments exploited a vulnerable population and the impact of that medical racism has extended for generations.

“Without excuse, we formally and officially extend a sincere apology to those who were subjected to this inhumane and horrific abuse. We are also sorry it took far too long to hear these words,” Kenney wrote.

Last year, the University of Pennsylvania issued a formal apology and took Kligman’s name off some honorifics like an annual lecture series and professorship. The university also directed research funds to fellows focused on dermatological issues in people of color.

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Johnny Bobbitt Jr., 39, who previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, was also ordered Monday in federal court in New Jersey to pay $25,000 in restitution. He earlier was sentenced to five years’ probation after pleading guilty in 2019 to state charges of conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

Prosecutors said Bobbitt aided Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure in a feel-good story in late 2017 about the homeless veteran giving his last $20 to help McClure when her car ran out of gas on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. The three conducted newspaper and television interviews and solicited donations, ostensibly to help Bobbitt, through a GoFundMe campaign they named “Paying It Forward,” prosecutors said.

The campaign raised more than $400,000 from about 14,000 donors in about a month and at the time was the largest fraud perpetrated through the crowdfunding platform, according to the prosecutor’s office in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Authorities began investigating after Bobbitt sued the couple, accusing them of not giving him the money. They eventually determined that all of the money was spent by March 2018, with large chunks spent by McClure and D’Amico on a recreational vehicle, a BMW and trips to casinos in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

D’Amico pleaded guilty in December 2019 and was sentenced in August to five years in state prison, a term running concurrent to an earlier term imposed on separate federal charges. McClure was sentenced to a year on federal charges and is awaiting sentencing on state charges. Both have been ordered to fully reimburse GoFundMe.

Meredith Elizalde ran toward the gunshots. Her instinct as a mother, something in the pit of her soul, knew her son was in danger.

She had been waiting in the car to pick up her only child after a high school football scrimmage. When she got to where the gunfire was coming from, she saw Nicolas, only 14 years old, bleeding out from a wound to his chest.

“I heard the shooting start and I didn’t know where he was, but inside as a mother I knew it. I ran to the shots. I ran to the shots and I couldn’t get him, but I held him and I felt him leave. But I was holding him. He wasn’t alone,” Elizalde said, fighting back the tears as she recalled the shooting that took her son in an interview with NBC10 on Thursday.

As the life ebbed out of her boy, Elizalde called 911, held him, touched his face, said, “I love you and I’m here.” Nicolas couldn’t say it himself, so Elizalde recited a Muslim prayer that she said means to believe in Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.

Nicolas – Nick, as she called him – was someone who fought for what he believed in but was at the same time a nonviolent, gentle soul. He loved animals and the environment. He was proud of being both a Muslim and Mexican-American in the U.S. at a time when hatred is all too frequently directed at both groups.

“I want them to know that Nick was the best son that anyone could ever ask for, that he was so special, that he never hurt anyone or anything,” Elizalde said. “He was the most gentle soul that I ever came across in my life. I’ve always said it was like raising Gandhi.”

Nicolas’ life was cut short when what police say were five gunmen ambushed a group of students following a football scrimmage near Roxborough High School. Four other teens were wounded, but police believe Nicolas was merely an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. Police believe the shooters may themselves be minors.

Nicolas’ life was full of promise. He lived in Delaware County’s Haverford neighborhood and attended Walter B. Saul High School, though he played football at Roxborough High School in Philadelphia. At his request, his family was getting ready to move to Roxborough so that he could be closer to where he played his ball.

Nick had already made friends in the neighborhood, too, hanging out with them on weekends. On Thursday night, that Roxborough community came together for a candlelight vigil.

The teenager was politically active. When former President Donald Trump and his followers chanted, “Build that wall” – a rallying cry to keep out undocumented immigrants whom the former president frequently disparaged – it hurt Nicolas’ soul, Elizalde said. Yet the teen didn’t back down, instead standing up to hatred, his mother said.

Nicolas marched alongside his mother and grandmother in the name of the environment, abortion protections and gun control. When a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in the predominantly Latino city of Uvalde, Texas, Nicolas wept, his mother recalled. Nicolas hated guns and the National Rifle Association, his mother added.

Elizalde was already no stranger to gun violence. A teacher at the School District of Philadelphia, she just last year had students of hers shot dead.

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Now, she wants people to remember that Nicolas was not merely a number in the ongoing count of children and adults shot in Philadelphia. And she wants legislators to take action.

“I want to tell them to stop just getting up at a podium and saying, ‘Here’s some thoughts and prayers and some useless legislation’ and shut people up. I want the Pennsylvania Legislature to do something, and by that I mean the one side that’s not doing anything,” Elizalde said.

Sitting in her home, Elizalde looked at photos of her son on the wall. One was of him as a 3-week-old dressed as a scarecrow for Halloween. As a baby, Nicolas didn’t cry. Elizalde said she knew immediately he would grow up to be special.

“There just isn’t a better, more pure human being on Earth, and that’s why God took him,” Elizalde said.

Cheryl Yewdall spent most of her life at a Philadelphia care home for people with developmental disabilities. It was there, on Jan. 26, that the 50-year-old was found face down on the floor, in a pool of urine, suffocating on a large wad of paper that had been stuffed down her throat.

She died five days later.

No one in authority has said how a 6- or 7-inch paper towel or disinfecting wipe wound up in the trachea of a woman with cerebral palsy and profound intellectual disabilities. The medical examiner’s office said it could not determine the manner of Yewdall’s death, and a police investigation has yielded no arrests.

But an attorney for Yewdall’s mother, in a new wrongful death lawsuit, casts suspicion on an unidentified staff member at Merakey Woodhaven — and suggests that Yewdall herself left a disturbing clue about what how she was treated at the place she called home for four decades.

“She was just so sweet and innocent and helpless, and she depended on them to care for her and love her and be safe,” Yewdall’s mother, Christine Civatte, said in a phone interview. “I just thought they would protect her.”

In a written statement to The Associated Press, Merakey said it “denies any responsibility” for Yewdall’s death, which it called “a serious and tragic incident.” The organization said it has cooperated with state and local investigations.

“She was a valued member of the Merakey community, and we were honored to have had her in our care for more than 40 years,” said Merakey, a provider of developmental, behavioral health and education services with nearly 700 locations nationwide.

Born three months premature, Cheryl Yewdall went to live at Woodhaven as a child. She loved nursery rhymes, doo-wop music and especially Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” — whenever her mother put it on, Yewdall would smile, clap her hands and rock back and forth in her wheelchair.

Christine Civatte said she thought everything was fine.

But in January 2021, a year before her death, Cheryl suffered a broken leg that went undiagnosed, the lawsuit said. Then, after an X-ray confirmed the fracture, staff failed to place an immobilizer on her leg as required, telling a visiting physician weeks later they didn’t know how, the lawsuit said.

And in a separate incident, from September 2021, Yewdall was reported to have a black eye and swollen cheek, which Woodhaven attributed to a fall, the lawsuit said.

Yewdall, who had limited verbal skills, often repeated words and phrases she heard other people say, a condition called echolalia. One day, her sister asked her to say, “Hi Daddy.”

Yewdall’s response, recorded by her sister on an iPhone, was chilling.

“Listen to me, a———. Settle down baby. I’m going to kill you if you don’t settle down,” said Yewdall. “I’m going to kill you, a———.”

The clear implication, according to James Pepper, the lawyer for Yewdall’s mother, was that she was merely repeating what she’d heard at Woodhaven.

“Cheryl’s recounting of what she heard previously, and the undisputed facts of what occurred to her during that yearlong period (before her death), match up,” said Pepper, who included a transcript of Yewdall’s statements to her sister in the lawsuit.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health threatened to terminate Woodhaven’s license after Yewdall’s death. In their review, regulators also found the care home denied prompt emergency treatment to another resident who fractured his hip, and failed to safeguard two residents with pica, an eating disorder in which someone consumes things that are not food, according to a state report.

The report showed that “Merakey had no effective policies in place to prevent its residents from engaging in pica behavior,” Civatte’s lawsuit said.

Though other Woodhaven residents struggled with pica, Pepper said, he doesn’t believe Yewdall inserted a large disinfectant wipe in her own windpipe. She had a normal gag reflex and no history of pica, according to Woodhaven records reviewed by the Health Department.

“No one with a gag reflex within normal limits could have put a cleaning wipe … into their trachea,” Pepper said.

The lawsuit, instead, pins blame on someone at Woodhaven.

“Cheryl Yewdall’s lack of any history of engaging in pica behavior indicates that a staff member at Merakey Woodhaven placed the cleaning wipe in Cheryl Yewdall’s trachea,” the lawsuit said.

Philadelphia police did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The state attorney general’s office, which has jurisdiction on criminal neglect at nursing homes, declined comment.

The state Health Department returned to Woodhaven on Sept. 6 and lifted the care home’s termination notice, concluding it had made “significant progress” in correcting problems.

Woodhaven sent condolences to Civatte after her daughter’s death, but offered no information about how and why it happened, Civatte said. Staff invited her to pick up Cheryl’s belongings: six tubs of clothes, toys, dolls.

Civatte said she’s still looking for answers.

“I need to know everything that happened. Every single moment,” Civatte said. “I need to find out who found her. I need to know who did this.”

A teenage boy was killed and four others were injured in a shooting behind Roxborough High School in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon, police said.

The victims were Roxborough High School football players who were finishing a scrimmage against two others teams and were walking off the field, according to Philadelphia police.

Two gunmen fired at least 70 times as they ambushed the group on Fairway Terrace near Pechin Street, behind Roxborough High School around 4:41 p.m., police said.

A 14-year-old boy was hit at least once in the chest and rushed to Einstein Medical Center where he died a short time later, police said. Family members and police identified him as Nicolas Elizalde.

The victim was on the Roxborough football team, but Philadelphia School District spokesperson Christina Clark said he attended nearby Saul High School, a magnet school that focuses on agricultural sciences.

Another 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg and was listed in stable condition at a local hospital, according to police. A third student, 17, was struck four times throughout his body, authorities said, and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police Wednesday said the gunshots were to his arm and leg.

Philadelphia police said a 15-year-old victim was shot in the leg and another 14-year-old was grazed in the ankle.

SkyForce10 was overhead as one of the victims was placed into the back of a police car and rushed away from the school parking lot. Blood could be seen nearby.

The scrimmage between Pennsylvania’s Roxborough High School, Northeast High School and Boys’ Latin Charter School ended around 4:30 p.m., Philadelphia Police First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said.

A light green Ford Explorer was seen driving off westbound on Fairway Terrace about ten minutes later, police said. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday evening.

Latonya Boyd-Smith rushed to Boys’ Latin Charter School after her 14-year-old son, who is on the school’s junior varsity team, called her to tell her there had been a shooting. She paced on the sidewalk, tears in her eyes as she anxiously waited to be reunited with her child.

“I just want to hold him because I already lost a child to gun violence and this is unnerving to me. This has to stop,” she said.

“While no members of the Boys’ Latin school community were physically hurt, the emotional toll of this tragedy will be long-lasting,” Boys’ Latin said in a statement. “We mourn the loss of life and the loss of the ability to feel safe and secure in our city. Far too many Boys’ Latin students have been robbed of this basic right. Their teammates, friends, families, teachers, and neighbors have as well. The school urges the city to take action.”

Chase Galagher, an 18-year-old senior who goes to another school but was in the area, said he heard the gunshots and “just ran.” Roxborough, he said, feels safer than other neighborhoods in the city, but gun violence is creeping into the area and getting closer to where he lives. “It’s starting to get a little scary, so hopefully things get better,” he said.

At Roxborough High School, Tanya Cousar rushed to pick up her freshman grandson.

“Something needs to be done and it needs to be done like yesterday, because it’s getting very, very dangerous to do even do something like play football. It’s ridiculous. We need some help,” she said as the teen stood next to her, holding his football shoulder pads in one hand.

The School District of Philadelphia’s Emergency/Crisis Response Team and a school-based team of social workers and counselors will be on-site in all impacted schools “to support students and staff as they process and grieve this tragedy,” Superintendent Tony Watlington said.

“I am personally disturbed and angry with this senseless act of violence, and it is unacceptable,” he said. “On behalf of all of us in the school district, hearts and prayers out to the families of today.”

“There are no word for what transpired earlier tonight,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted Tuesday. “Tonight, a family will begin to grapple with the loss of their loved one. My deepest condolences go out to them.”

Police said a reunification center for parents and students was located at 6401 Ridge Ave.

Children have far too often been victims of gun violence in Philadelphia in 2022. According to city controller’s office data (last updated on Monday), at least 174 children have been shot this year in Philadelphia. That accounts for around 10% of all shooting victims in the city.

Entering Wednesday, at least 401 people had been killed in shootings in Philadelphia in 2022, according to Philadelphia police data. That’s 1% down from last year, which wound up having the most killings on record in the city.

Back at Boys’ Latin Charter School, Boyd-Smith expressed despair about how frequently gun violence is impacting Philadelphia’s kids.

“Man, I had to sit down with my son and educate him on what to do when he hears shots or it’s a gun situation,” she said, her voice cracking as she fought back the tears. “That’s something I shouldn’t be teaching my 14-year-old son. He’s playing football, he’s being a kid, he’s playing for his school, he’s doing something that he loves and I gotta teach him that when he’s at a game and something like this happens what he needs to do.”

Eventually, as a SWAT truck stood guard in the distance, Boyd-Smith finally got to see her son as he and his teammates filed out of a school bus. He stepped off and she hugged him tight in a lengthy embrace.

They crossed the street, where they hugged again. Briefly, Boyd-Smith stood back, but only to hold her boy’s face. She quickly hugged him tight again.

There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.

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Ernest Pressley, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, four counts of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire and other crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania said in a news release.

Pressley also admitted to the attempted murder of a woman four years ago, the release said.

Charging documents and court filings detailing the crimes were unsealed Wednesday. Pressley’s guilty plea and conviction carry a mandatory life sentence in prison, the release said.

“By his own admission, Ernest Pressley is an incredibly dangerous individual with no qualms about accepting money to calculatedly and cold-bloodedly murder anyone,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement.

Read the full story here at NBCNews.com.

“Somehow I convinced them to do it in Philadelphia,” Magid told NBC10 in an interview last week of his efforts to convince the concert organizers to have it here. “Many of you won’t remember, but at the time, Philly had the biggest stadium in America: JFK (Stadium) was a big horseshoe that could hold over 90,000 fans. It was right in what is now the Wells Fargo Center’s Broad Street side parking lot. And frankly? It was a dump.”

But, he added, “It was in just good enough shape that we could pull it off.”

Magid and longtime WMMR-FM disc jockey Pierre Robert talked with NBC10 in new interviews about their memories of that crazy Saturday in the middle of the summer of 1985. Live Aid got some attention in NBC’s new primetime series, “Quantum Leap,” which premiered at 10 p.m., Monday, Sept. 19 on NBC10.

They also shared some photos with NBC10 from that day 37 years ago. Here’s a look:

The Hooters’ Eric Bazilian also recalled being the hometown opening act for the Philly Live Aid concert.

“I think we had a tremendous sense of Philly pride,” he told NBC10’s Sheila Watko. “Yes, we were the local band, we were the band that was able to say ‘welcome to Philadelphia.'”

“This was our city, this was our town, this was our audience and we were able to welcome the world.”

Valencia Prime, 25, was performing at Tabu Lounge and Sports bar, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Gayborhood, when she collapsed on stage, bar owner Jeffrey Sotland said. 

“Today we mourn the loss of a very bright and rising star in the performance community and a person who was always full of love and positivity,” the venue said in a statement on social media. “We say goodbye to Valencia Prime but we will not forget the light you brought to the stage.”

Tributes from other performers poured in after the news spread. Prime, a transgender woman, had dubbed herself “Philadelphia’s plus-size dancing diva.” 

Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.

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