Chevrolet Impala

After two weeks of being chauffeured around in her own car or in her bodyguard's pickup truck, Mayor Gwendolyn Faison got a "birthday gift" yesterday: a new city car. Camden's City Council approved a $16,000 Chevrolet Impala for Faison, who turned 77. At a combination Valentine's Day-birthday party, the mayor of the financially strapped city said she was thrilled. "For my birthday, I'm getting a car," she told the group of nearly 30 city employees and three of her sisters in the Mayor's Office, after presiding at the wedding of her secretary.

Police today identified the three people killed in separate incidents on Thursday in Philadelphia. Tanisha Finch, 31, of the 3600 block of North Percy Street in Franklinville, was shot in the head and fatally wounded about 2:05 a.m. while sitting in a car with a man on the 1100 block of Mount Airy Avenue in East Mount Airy, police said. Police said the pair had gone there for a meeting, the nature of which was not spelled out. A woman on the street spoke briefly to Finch before walking away, police said.

Two men were killed Sunday morning in an automobile crash on South 61st Street in Southwest Philadelphia. According to police, a 58-year-old man traveling south at a high speed swerved his black Chevrolet Impala into oncoming traffic when he reached the 3200 block of the street about 9:15 a.m. His car struck a blue Chevy Tracker driven by a 38-year-old man. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not release the name of either man Sunday afternoon pending notification of family.

The death of a woman whose body was found with her throat cut in a burning house in East Mount Airy has been classified as a homicide, police said today. Rosalyn Daniels was pronounced dead at the scene following the fire 12:30 a.m. Monday in the home she shared with her two children and grandmother on the 1200 block of Cliveden Street. Relatives say they Daniels had been planning to break up with her boyfriend when she was killed. Police said they suspect the fire was set to cover up the crime.

A man was shot and killed and a woman stabbed to death in separate attacks in North Philadelphia early today, police said. At about 12:25 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the head while sitting in a rented black Chevrolet Impala on the 2200 block of Estaugh Street in the Tioga section, police said. Police were looking for two men seen fleeing the scene. Investigators also found a handgun was under the victim's leg, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. About 15 minutes later, a 39-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times in the chest inside a building on the 1700 block of North 22nd Street, police said.

Highway Patrol officers chased down and wrestled with a suspect Thursday afternoon in the same North Philadelphia neighborhood where Officer Patrick McDonald was fatally shot nearly 2 1/2 weeks ago. This time, however, a neighbor called 911 when she saw the ordeal, and the confrontation ended without injury to police or the suspect. "She had enough decency to call police when she saw the two officers struggling," Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Cochrane said yesterday. The incident started about 1 p.m., when Officers Bruce Cleaver and Joe Moore attempted to pull over a Chevrolet Impala after the driver failed to use a turn signal.

Thomas Dale Wolfinger, 64, formerly of Telford in Bucks County, whose vocation and avocation both involved motor vehicles, died on Sunday. He died at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Mont., after an illness. Mr. Wolfinger was a 32-year member of Teamsters Union Local 773 in Allentown and retired in 1997 after 30 years as a truck driver for Hook-Up Inc., an Allentown firm that delivers Mack trucks across the country. Previously, he spent 10 years as a truck driver for Mrs. Smith's Pie Co., of Pottstown, and before that was a truck driver for several years for the former Contract Service in Colmar.

A part of a transmission from a disabled car being towed northbound on Interstate 95 has been identified as the projectile that struck and killed a Bucks County man Sunday afternoon as he drove with his children southbound through Delaware County. State police in Media said yesterday that they had recovered the part, a torque converter, along the road side and had identified it through crime lab tests as the object that struck and killed John J. Wagner, 41, of Holland. The converter, a 20-pound disk, apparently fell from a truck towing a late- model, green Chevrolet Impala with a black top. Police said they thought the part had been removed from the Impala and was in the bed of the truck when it fell.

Unless otherwise attributed, the following reports are based on the statements of local police. Marple A 1979 Chevrolet Impala was reported stolen from the parking lot of the AMC 10 theater, 400 S. State Rd., at 3:48 p.m. Jan. 19. A 9mm handgun and an unspecified amount of jewelry were reported stolen from a residence in the first block of Sarah's Way at 3:22 p.m. last Thursday. Newtown A laptop computer, valued at $3,000, was reported stolen from an office at Arco Chemical in the 3800 block of the West Chester Pike at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 19. At 9:30 a.m. the next day, another laptop, valued at $6,000, also was reported stolen.

Police today identified the three people killed in separate incidents on Thursday in Philadelphia. Tanisha Finch, 31, of the 3600 block of North Percy Street in Franklinville, was shot in the head and fatally wounded about 2:05 a.m. while sitting in a car with a man on the 1100 block of Mount Airy Avenue in East Mount Airy, police said. Police said the pair had gone there for a meeting, the nature of which was not spelled out. A woman on the street spoke briefly to Finch before walking away, police said.

A man was shot and killed and a woman stabbed to death in separate attacks in North Philadelphia early today, police said. At about 12:25 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the head while sitting in a rented black Chevrolet Impala on the 2200 block of Estaugh Street in the Tioga section, police said. Police were looking for two men seen fleeing the scene. Investigators also found a handgun was under the victim's leg, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. About 15 minutes later, a 39-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times in the chest inside a building on the 1700 block of North 22nd Street, police said.

The death of a woman whose body was found with her throat cut in a burning house in East Mount Airy has been classified as a homicide, police said today. Rosalyn Daniels was pronounced dead at the scene following the fire 12:30 a.m. Monday in the home she shared with her two children and grandmother on the 1200 block of Cliveden Street. Relatives say they Daniels had been planning to break up with her boyfriend when she was killed. Police said they suspect the fire was set to cover up the crime.

Two men were killed Sunday morning in an automobile crash on South 61st Street in Southwest Philadelphia. According to police, a 58-year-old man traveling south at a high speed swerved his black Chevrolet Impala into oncoming traffic when he reached the 3200 block of the street about 9:15 a.m. His car struck a blue Chevy Tracker driven by a 38-year-old man. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not release the name of either man Sunday afternoon pending notification of family.

Highway Patrol officers chased down and wrestled with a suspect Thursday afternoon in the same North Philadelphia neighborhood where Officer Patrick McDonald was fatally shot nearly 2 1/2 weeks ago. This time, however, a neighbor called 911 when she saw the ordeal, and the confrontation ended without injury to police or the suspect. "She had enough decency to call police when she saw the two officers struggling," Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Cochrane said yesterday. The incident started about 1 p.m., when Officers Bruce Cleaver and Joe Moore attempted to pull over a Chevrolet Impala after the driver failed to use a turn signal.

Camden police made several procedural missteps when they converted a recovered stolen 1998 Lincoln Town Car and used it to chauffeur Mayor Gwendolyn Faison, a report released yesterday said. "Mistakes were made," Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi, whose office conducted the investigation, said in a statement. "While proper procedures were not followed . . . our review indicates there were was no criminal intent or conduct on the part of the city or any of its officials.

After holding out for more than a month, Mayor Gwendolyn Faison has decided to give up her "stolen car" - a black 1998 Lincoln Town Car. The car, which had been used since January as her official chauffeur-driven transportation to municipal appointments, had become a vehicle of ridicule for opponents of the 77-year-old mayor. The car had been reported stolen from its owner - a 70-year-old Pennsauken man - earlier this year and was abandoned in Camden. "We were notified by [the Camden County]

Robert Vinis reported his car stolen more than six months ago. Now, after locating his prized 1998 Lincoln Town Car, the retired Pennsauken man says he feels as if it is being taken from him again. His car is now the mayormobile. Mayor Gwendolyn A. Faison this month began using Vinis' Lincoln for city business and has no plans to give it up. After numerous efforts by police to reach Vinis with news of the car's recovery failed, the vehicle was deemed abandoned, claimed by the city, and put into service, city and police officials said.

After two weeks of being chauffeured around in her own car or in her bodyguard's pickup truck, Mayor Gwendolyn Faison got a "birthday gift" yesterday: a new city car. Camden's City Council approved a $16,000 Chevrolet Impala for Faison, who turned 77. At a combination Valentine's Day-birthday party, the mayor of the financially strapped city said she was thrilled. "For my birthday, I'm getting a car," she told the group of nearly 30 city employees and three of her sisters in the Mayor's Office, after presiding at the wedding of her secretary.