NEWS
May 24, 2012 | By Julie Shaw
Yi Qi Dong was outside cleaning his West Philadelphia Chinese takeout after 11 p.m. on May 1 when three men, two with guns, rushed up to him and forced him inside. Over the next three hours, the thugs terrorized Dong, his wife and 11-year-old daughter at the restaurant, at 42nd and Ogden streets. They searched for money, pistol-whipped and punched him and his wife, and pulled her and their daughter's hair. Dong, 48, who came here in 1993 from the city of Fuzhou in southeastern China, testified through a Mandarin interpreter in Family Court Wednesday about the frightening ordeal that ended only after a passer-by, who noticed something suspicious, notified police.
NEWS
May 24, 2012 | Inquirer Editorial
Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a measure that could help keep guns out of the hands of career criminals by imposing a mandatory five-year prison sentence on any felon caught carrying a weapon. But since there's usually a catch whenever new gun laws are the subject, you might be asking, What is it going to be this time? Harrisburg, after all, is known for letting sensible gun-violence prevention proposals die. Many never even make it to a committee vote, due to the vise-grip of the National Rifle Association on any item related to gun rights.
NEWS
May 24, 2012 | Ed Weiner
This whole incident is madness. The school officials should have just told the boys not to bring the gun to school. The toy pellet gun hitting the girl occurred off school property. The girl was uninjured, and is not complaining. "Corpus delicti" (plural: corpora delicti; Latin: "body of crime") is a term from Western jurisprudence that refers to the principle that it must be proved that a crime has occurred before a person can be convicted of committing the crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unless it can be proven that property has been stolen.
NEWS
May 22, 2012 | By Stephanie Farr, Daily News Staff Writer
After spending 10 days in juvenile detention for an incident involving a toy gun, 12-year-old Gerald McNeal's first meal when he was released Friday was shrimp, mac and cheese and spinach. Yes, spinach. Gerald, whose favorite color is peach and whose favorite Phillies player is Vance Worley, isn't a typical 12-year-old. The incident that landed him in juvy on a felony assault charge May 8 isn't typical either. Gerald, a tall, thin, quiet boy with long lashes and even longer limbs, had taken a plastic toy gun away from his little brother Isaac, 9, and put it in his bookbag because their mother doesn't allow them to play with toy guns.
NEWS
May 22, 2012 | BY morgan zalot, Daily News Staff Writer
Victor Guzman tried to pull his son away from the man he'd been arguing with on his front stoop in Frankford Sunday night. Before he could get him back into the house, it was too late. The man Guzman's son, 25-year-old Edward Pagan, had been fighting with pulled a gun and opened fire in front of their rowhouse on Adams Avenue near Wingohocking Street, wounding Guzman and killing Pagan. "I was trying to drag my son into the house," Guzman, 49, said quietly as he stood outside the house Monday, his left arm bandaged from elbow to knuckles.
NEWS
May 18, 2012 | By Tom Infield, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A former detective-sergeant in the Hatboro Police Department stands accused of stealing firearms, cash, and narcotics from the police evidence room, and also of using a police informant to buy illegal drugs for him. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Thursday that John Becker, 42, of Horsham, had been arraigned before District Judge Paul Leo on numerous charges and had been released on $10,000 bail pending further court action in...
NEWS
May 17, 2012 | By Barbara Boyer, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Stephanie Thompson wanted justice for the death of her 4-year-old son Brandon. The energetic, happy, and loving child was playing near his uncle in August 2008 in Camden when he was killed instantly, caught in cross fire between his uncle and another man fighting a petty feud. On Wednesday, the gunmen — Martin Pierce, 23, and Donnald Lindsey, 24 — left the Camden County Hall of Justice with lengthy sentences issued by Superior Court Judge Michele Fox. The justice meted out, however, was not exactly what Thompson wanted.
NEWS
May 17, 2012 | By Stephanie Farr, Daily News Staff Writer
By the time he appears in court on Friday, 12-year-old Gerald McNeal will have been in custody for 10 days for doing what he thought a big brother should do. His little brother, Isaac, 9, meanwhile, has been racked with guilt and feels responsible for the serious criminal charges that his brother faces because of Isaac's toy gun. "Mostly, I was crying because if I never would have bring it this would have never happened," said Isaac....
NEWS
May 9, 2012 | Daily News Editorial
In the streets surrounding the Republican National Convention in Tampa this summer, water pistols, slingshots, brass knuckles and glass bottles will be prohibited. But loaded guns? Not a chance. While the spoilsport Secret Service won't let civilians carry guns inside the Tampa Convention Center, outside is a different story: Anyone with a concealed weapons permit will be permitted to pack heat almost anywhere he wants. And yet, the NRA-manipulated paranoia about nonexistent threats to gun ownership has become even more pronounced since Barack Obama became president: The fact that Obama has done nothing to restrict guns — and, in fact, signed a law allowing people to take them into national parks — apparently is proof to them that he intends to take everyone's guns away.
NEWS
May 4, 2012 | By Jason Nark, Daily News Staff Writer
IT WAS A DAY to be proud of the uniform, a sunny August afternoon to honor the badge at the Jersey shore and remember those officers who made the greatest sacrifice. Two sources familiar with the Margate, N.J, Police Department say the 2010 Hero Thrill Show was also the day colorful Philadelphia lawyer and law-enforcement philanthropist Jimmy Binns, who likes to dress up in police uniforms, should have been arrested for illegally carrying a handgun. He wasn't — the sources say — because he's friends with the Margate chief.