Cops

HAVING A child with terminal cancer is every mother's worst nightmare. But for a mother of four in South Jersey, police say, it was a way to make easy money. In what police called an unfathomable crime, Susan Stillwaggon, 35, of Pennsauken, is accused of convincing her 9-year-old son - along with relatives, neighbors and others - that the boy was suffering from stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma and using the fake illness to gain sympathy and donations. "It's shameful. It really is," said Pennsauken Police Detective Sgt. Cheryl Duffy, an investigator on the case.

ATTENTION, MOTORISTS: Be on the lookout for a hotheaded driver on Roosevelt Boulevard who'll knock your teeth out if you diss him. I share this warning because the guy is a menace, even if a certain cop in the 8th Police District doesn't think so. And I want to spread the word before someone gets beaten up, the way William Velasquez did. Last Saturday afternoon, Velasquez, 40, was cruising north on Roosevelt near Welsh Road, headed for Walmart....

POLICE SAY an officer apparently shot himself in the leg accidentally at Plymouth Township training facility. It happened at an indoor firing range at the Montgomery County Fire Academy shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday. Investigators say the officer was training with other police at the time and has been flown to a Philadelphia hospital for treatment. Plymouth Deputy Police Chief John Myrsiades says investigators believe the shot grazed the officer's leg and may have entered his calf.

LAST WEEK, some amateur Web sleuths mistakenly named missing Bryn Mawr native Sunil Tripathi as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, a temporary shock to a family desperately looking for the former Brown University student. Now the 22-year-old's family may have to endure a more painful blow. as The Rhode Island Medical Examiner's Office identified the body found Tuesday in the Providence River as Tripathi. The identity was confirmed this morning and the cause and manner of death are not yet available, a spokeswoman said.

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.

THIS WASN'T the kind of news Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey wanted to hear. Last fall, when a YouTube video of Highway Patrol Lt. Jonathan Josey striking a woman at the Puerto Rican Day Parade went viral, Ramsey was told that a similar case was quietly languishing in Internal Affairs. Aquil Byrd, a veteran cop assigned to the Narcotics Strike Force, had been accused of assaulting a man at the 2011 Puerto Rican Day Parade. And there was video of the incident, too. Ramsey said he immediately reassigned the Internal Affairs investigation.

JONATHAN LAZARDE, a veteran Philly cop who's been at the center of an extortion probe, abruptly resigned from the force earlier this week. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey put Lazarde and another officer on desk duty April 11, a week after Internal Affairs investigators received a complaint that alleged Lazarde had attempted to shake down a criminal suspect. The commissioner said yesterday that the case will soon be sent to the District Attorney's Office. "It's still a criminal case as far as I'm concerned," Ramsey said.

A Philadelphia police officer on duty during the 2011 Puerto Rican Day Festival has been arrested, suspended and charged with assault and official oppression. Officer Aquil Byrd, a 12-year veteran who was last assigned to the Narcotics Strike Force, was called to the 3000 block of N. Front Street on Sept. 25 to help disperse a crowd, police said. Byrd and a male festival attendee got into a verbal altercation which soon degenerated into alleged physical violence. Byrd allegedly punched the man in the face and grabbed him by the throat, according to a police news release.

ROCHELLE BILAL, the Philadelphia police officer who championed the rights of her black colleagues as Guardian Civic League president, has been quietly working a side job in violation of city police rules. When a Daily News reporter asked Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey about Bilal's secret gig on Thursday, he immediately called the police Internal Affairs Bureau and ordered an investigation. "They're taking a look at when she was working out there and whether she has started already," Ramsey said.

Rochelle Bilal Job: Joined the Philadelphia Police Department in 1986, starting in Southwest Philadelphia's 18th District. Later worked in the Juvenile Aid Division, Special Victims Unit and High Intense Drug Trafficking Agency in the Narcotics Division. Passion: Championed black officers and fought racism in the Police Department as president of the Guardian Civic League. Also serves as secretary of the Philadelphia NAACP. In 2009, she was honored as a finalist for the George Fencl Award, which recognizes outstanding cops.