Car Chase

A man was killed yesterday when an auto chased by police, who suspected they had stumbled onto a drug deal, rammed a utility pole on Somerset Street near Broad in North Philadelphia. Police said the dead man, John Wilson, 56, of 35th Street near Mount Vernon, was in a car with another man, two women and a 5-year-old boy. The car had been stolen, police said. The driver, Nolan Brizzill, 23, of 37th Street near Brandywine, was admitted in critical condition to Temple University Hospital.

A young man was critically wounded by police early yesterday morning after barricading himself in a Pottstown home for more than six hours, threatening to commit suicide, then leading police on a car chase that ended in West Norriton. Sean Edelman, believed to be 19, was shot multiple times by police after he pointed a handgun at officers in the Wachovia Bank parking lot at Egypt Road and Ridge Pike, according to a news release from the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

A dog's barking triggered a car chase that began in Abington Township and ended minutes later in North Philadelphia when a car theft suspect was shot by police after he allegedly pulled a knife. Arrested and charged with simple and aggravated assault, theft and receiving stolen property was Nathaniel Harrison, 39, an escapee from the Community Service Center, a pre-release residence at 3025 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Police in Abington and neighboring Cheltenham Township gave this account: At 3:14 a.m. Monday, Marcel Groen woke up and heard his dog barking outside his home in the 1200 block of Lenox Road in Abington.

A man was shot and wounded by police during a car chase yesterday after he allegedly attempted to withdraw money from a savings and loan branch with a forged withdrawal slip and then punched and kicked two officers who attempted to question him, police said. The suspect, Carlton Beatty, 25, of Cheltenham Avenue near Greenwood Street in West Oak Lane, was in stable condition today in John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital with wounds to the right arm and side. A companion, Derwin Ridley, 28, of 60th Street near Haddington in West Philadelphia, who police said drove the car during most of the chase, also was arrested.

A 29-year-old man was killed yesterday morning in a car crash that followed a hit-and-run accident and high-speed chase through the Mayfair section of the city, police said. Detective Sgt. Robert Snyder of the Homicide Unit said William Fair of the 4400 block of Griscom Street was driving south on Roosevelt Boulevard when his 1974 Plymouth was sideswiped by a 1975 Chevrolet about 2:40 a.m. The driver of the Chevrolet, a white male about 40 years old with graying hair, did not stop, and Fair chased him in his car for about 15 minutes, police said.

Two Upper Darby police officers were injured during their chase of a burglary suspect who drove into two police cars, hit a parked car and then escaped on foot about 6 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said. Police Officer Donald Clark was treated for a knee injury at Delaware County Memorial Hospital. He was hurt when his car hit a tree as he was pursuing the suspect, who was running on Beverly Boulevard. Clark pulled onto the sidewalk trying to stop the man, but his car slid on the wet grass and hit the tree.

The two officers involved in a stolen-car chase Monday night that ended in the deaths of two people acted "in line with pursuit guidelines" of the Police Department, a department spokesman said yesterday. The stolen car, driven by a 12-year-old boy who had been on the run from authorities since Oct. 8, struck a car driven by a 52-year-old father of nine, who was killed. The second car then struck and killed an 11-year-old girl and critically injured her 7-year-old sister. The 12-year-old boy has been charged with homicide by vehicle and two other boys in the stolen car also were charged in the incident, which occurred about 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Ninth Street and Lindley Avenue in the city's Logan section.

A 20-year-old Philadelphia man was arrested on assault, weapons and other charges yesterday after leading an off-duty police sergeant on a car chase during which shots were fired. The man's 2-year-old child was in the car during the chase, and a shot was fired at the sergeant's car, police said. Justin Ellis, of the 5700 block of Catharine Street, was apprehended on I-76 westbound, near Girard Avenue, where he had stopped. Police believe he threw the gun out of the car before stopping.

A N ABINGTON Township police officer was hospitalized and an alleged bank robber was in custody Friday, after a car chase that began in Jenkintown and "wound all over Philadelphia," police said. Abington Deputy Police Chief John Livingood said that about 11:15 a.m. Aaron K.M. Thomas, 47, of West Philly, went into the PNC Bank on Old York Road near Township Line, tossed a plastic bag on the teller's counter, and said: "Fill it up. " He left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash and drove southbound on Broad Street in a black Range Rover.

Philadelphia police identified the victim in the fatal police-pursuit car crash on Friday night as Danny Irizarry Roman, 36, of the 4800 block of North Eighth Street. Roman had been pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the striking vehicle, Gregory Alston, 39, of the 4500 block of Fernhill Street, fled on foot after the crash and was caught by police. Alston had been pursued by a police cruiser when he smashed into the Honda Accord in which Irizarry was traveling in the passenger seat.

BRICK TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Authorities say a Jersey Shore police officer is recovering from injuries suffered when he was dragged about 250 feet by a pickup truck driven by a man who later led officers on a high-speed chase. Brick Patrolman Mark Nixon suffered a fractured rib, sprained knee, bruised elbow and multiple abrasions in the April 18 incident, which was made public yesterday. Authorities say Nixon stopped the truck driven by Ronald DeFreitas and soon learned there was a warrant for his arrest.

Israeli: Ready for compromise JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was ready for a "historic compromise" in talks with the Palestinians as he presented a new government that is a mix of centrists and hawkish supporters of Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Speaking in parliament before the 22 ministers were sworn in, Netanyahu said that, while the cabinet would work to carry out domestic reforms that were the focus of Israel's election, the government's top priority would be "protecting the security of the state and its citizens.

Cleveland police face U.S. probe TOLEDO, Ohio - The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday it will open a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the use of force by Cleveland's police department, whose officers fired 137 shots at the end of a massive police chase last fall, killing two likely unarmed people. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said the investigation will look beyond the November car chase that involved more than 60 patrol cars and ended in the shootings of Timothy Russell, 43, and his passenger, Malissa Williams, 30. Perez said the probe will not be a criminal investigation; its focus is the entire department, not individual officers.

  BLAKE BILLS' mother was at her New Jersey home on Tuesday, watching a wild police chase on television involving two stolen cop cars, when she realized in an instant that her son was in deep, deep trouble. Soon after cops arrested one of the two suspects in the car chase, the cameras zoomed in on the other, and Veronica Bills immediately recognized the woman on TV as her son's fiancee, Shayna Sykes, said Macungie Police Chief Edward Harry Jr. Bills' mother then called Sykes' grandmother, who had reported the pair missing from her home in Macungie, Lehigh County, on Monday - after they had taken the grandmother's car Friday under the guise of traveling to an appointment with Bills' attorney, Harry said.

BLARING SIRENS, gunfire and the sound of helicopters rocked Center City late Thursday night after a chance encounter between police and a shooting suspect led to a wild chase that culminated with a cop opening fire on a man. "I wanted to peek my head out, but I thought something pretty bad was going on outside," said Andrew Westerhaus, 35, who lives a few blocks from where police say the chase ended near 24th and Locust streets. The drama started when two officers were on patrol near 27th and Tasker streets about 10:15 p.m. and spotted a man in a crowd firing a gun, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

APOLICE CHASE in Center City on Thursday night led to the arrest of two people, who at one point allegedly exchanged gunfire with cops. The car chase began in the 17th Police District in South Philadelphia and ended shortly after 10 p.m. at 24th and Locust streets, where one of the suspects was shot in the arm, police said. No officers were injured. Police said late Thursday that they were still unsure what led to the chase. But CBS3 reported that an officer witnessed a shooting in Grays Ferry and followed the gunman into Center City.

A car chase after an accident Tuesday afternoon in Wynnefield ended with a crash that left an 90-year-old man in a third vehicle in critical condition, police said. A 25-year-old man driving a blue Buick Park Avenue got into an accident with a 29-year-old man in a white Nissan Maxima at 54th Street and City Avenue, police said. The younger driver fled and was pursued by the man in the Nissan. At 3:47, the Buick crashed into a gold Honda Accord occupied by the man and an 82-year-old woman in the 2200 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, police said.

WHILE CARRYING an Arizona station's feed of a high-speed chase Friday afternoon, Fox News showed a man apparently committing suicide. "Fox News" anchor Shepard Smith, who'd been doing commentary during the aftermath of the chase, apologized almost immediately. "We really messed up and we're all very sorry," he said, according to ABC. "That didn't belong on TV. . . . I personally apologize to you that it happened. It's insensitive and it's wrong. " In the clip, a man is seen running down a hill after a car chase on Interstate 10 outside of Phoenix following a carjacking.

Two men were arrested in the city's Frankford section Monday night after leading police on a car chase from Bensalem, police said. Around 8 p.m., Bensalem police were making an undercover drug buy near the Parx Casino when the two alleged dealers fled in a red Jeep Cherokee, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. Police pursued the men south on I-95 into Northeast Philadelphia. The Jeep was found parked in the 4200 block of Orchard Street, and the men had gone into a house in the 4100 block, Small said.

A robbery suspect was shot by police Sunday after he allegedly pointed a gun at officers following a brief car chase. The man, identified as Daniel Rubio, 26, of the 300 block of Eleanor Street, was struck in the head by a bullet and was in critical condition at Einstein Medical Center. He was shot after Philadelphia officers responded to a report of a robbery on the 100 block of West Clearfield Street, said police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers. Rubio was the passenger in a car pursued by police in connection with the robbery.