Police Headquarters

A Northeast Philadelphia man who authorities say has a history of bank robberies has confessed to killing two Loomis armored-truck guards gunned down this week in a robbery near Roosevelt Mall, police sources said late last night. As the investigation progressed, the evidence kept getting stronger, sources said, including information about the handgun used to kill Joseph Alullo, 54, of Levittown, and William Widmaier, 65, of Fairless Hills, both retired Philadelphia police officers working for Loomis.

A Coatesville police dispatcher was held at knifepoint on the afternoon of Dec. 12 by a young man who asked police to shoot him. Police gave this account: Kevin Maurice Blaylock, 18, of the 100 block of Broadview Court, entered the police building about 3 p.m. and walked into the employee section. After entering the office, Blaylock placed an 8 1/2-inch knife at the right side of Francis Pilotti's throat. Blaylock told the dispatcher to call police into the room. Pilotti sent out a radio call for assistance.

The suspect in the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy was ordered held without bail at a predawn hearing yesterday. John Lewis, 21, was arraigned via closed-circuit television and held in the detention unit at Police Headquarters. Lewis will not be jailed in Philadelphia because his mother is a corrections officer in the city, police said. No decision has been made about where he will be transferred while he awaits trial. Lewis had fled by bus to Miami on Nov. 3, three days after Cassidy, 54, a married father of three, was gunned down during a botched robbery of a Dunkin' Donuts on Broad Street in West Oak Lane.

Man jumps from window at police HQ * 8th Street near Race A 21-year-old man being questioned by homicide detectives jumped from a window at Police Headquarters Thursday night, police said. The man hurled his body through the first-floor window and landed on an air conditioning unit, fracturing his ankle, police said. They added that the windows do not open manually. The man was in Jefferson University Hospital in stable condition. Police said the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was being questioned in connection with a fatal shooting on 21st Street near Tioga on March 13, in which the 27-year-old victim jumped from a second-story window and was pronounced dead on a porch roof.

A bomb blew up in a crowded waiting room at police headquarters here yesterday, killing one person and injuring 51 in the fourth bombing in Paris within a week. The explosion appeared to be part of a continuing campaign by Middle East terrorists to hold the city of Paris hostage in an attempt to win the release of three imprisoned comrades. It also took place less than 24 hours after the government announced a crackdown on terrorism, underscoring the defiance of the terrorists and the frustration of the French government in trying to stop them.

The suspect in the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy was ordered held without bail at a predawn hearing yesterday. John Lewis, 21, was arraigned via closed-circuit television and held in the detention unit at Police Headquarters. Lewis will not be jailed in Philadelphia because his mother is a corrections officer in the city, police said. No decision has been made about where he will be transferred while he awaits trial. Lewis had fled by bus to Miami on Nov. 3, three days after Cassidy, 54, a married father of three, was gunned down during a botched robbery of a Dunkin' Donuts on Broad Street in West Oak Lane.

They resemble high-tech steam irons complete with miniature TVs. Only these handheld devices aren't for watching CNN while creasing a pair of pants. They're for fighting crime - and Philadelphia police soon will be pressing 10 of them into service in patrol and detective cars as part of a program to see how well they work. The white units, bristling with buttons and a stubby black antenna, are portable and allow officers to rapidly identify people without having to take them in, Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas Nestel said.

As the Republican National Convention soared to its climax yesterday, a week's worth of protests in Center City appeared to peter out in scattered scenes of wilting street theater. The possibility of a final showdown between protesters and police ended when about 200 people encamped in Franklin Square, at Seventh and Race Streets and about a block from Police Headquarters, left peacefully last night under police escort. After a two-hour candlelight vigil during which they heard from a variety of speakers, the protesters - and a contingent of three dozen police officers on foot and with bicycles - headed toward the Friends Center at 15th and Cherry Streets, where they had been invited to spend the night.

A suspect who said he had the skinny on a homicide case managed to shimmy through an air vent in the ceiling of an interview room last night and escape Police Headquarters. Police were searching for Hector Gomez, 28, of Kensington, who they said slipped through the ductwork of the Homicide Unit and then is believed to have walked out a door of the Police Department's headquarters at Eighth and Race Streets. "He probably acted like normal and just strolled out," said Lt. Frank Vanore, the department's spokesman.

No one is sure just what Jose Torres, a fugitive from a New York state prison, had on his mind when he walked into the Camden City Police Department and requested a background check on himself. "It would seem pretty stupid," Erin Cavanaugh, a spokeswoman at the New York State Department of Correctional Services, said yesterday. Torres, 25, had been serving time at the minimum-security Edgecombe Correctional Facility since March 1991 for second-degree robbery, Cavanaugh said.

David Timbers, the West Philadelphia man wanted for tossing a cup of scalding hot coffee at a doughnut shop cashier, was charged today with aggravated assault and other related charges. Timbers, 52, of the 3700 block of Haverford Avenue, surrendered at Police Headquarters Monday, and was charged this morning. He was released after posting 10 percent of $25,000 bail. Besides aggravated assault, he was charged with simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime (the hot coffee)

1 Woman, 52, beaten to death in N. Philly Gratz Street near Susquehanna Avenue A woman made a ghastly discovery late Tuesday night when she walked into her sister's North Philadelphia home and found her 52-year-old sister slumped on the couch, dead of severe blunt-force head trauma. Medics arrived at the scene and pronounced the woman, identified as Lavonne Thrones-Johnson, dead at 10:50 p.m. They were unsure how long she'd been dead, but relatives told investigators they'd last seen the woman about 8 p.m. Police said there was no sign of forced entry into the house and were unsure if anyone lived with the woman.

RUSH-HOUR TRAFFIC on Aramingo Avenue came to a crawl in Port Richmond Wednesday as drivers paused to watch police place yellow evidence markers on a Jiffy Lube driveway where bullet casings landed after a shooting that left a 40-year-old employee dead. The unidentified victim was moving a Ford Focus into the service bay at the shop on Aramingo Avenue near Venango about 5:30 p.m. when a man approached him and the two got into a heated argument, police said. Chief Inspector Scott Small said the gunman fired at least six shots at the victim and fled the scene on foot.

Murder charges filed in fatal Tacony crash A Rhawnhurst man was charged in a fatal accident that killed two people Thursday morning in Northeast Philadelphia, police said. George Vidra, 26, of the 7800 block of Lorna Drive, was driving a red Chevrolet Camaro that ran a stop sign and crashed into a silver Kia at Ditman and Disston Streets in Tacony, police said. The Kia exploded in flames, and its two occupants, a 26-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, were pronounced dead at the scene.

POLICE IN SANFORD, Fla., marched a handcuffed George Zimmerman into police headquarters the night he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, and a video shot by a security camera picked up no obvious sign of injury to the neighborhood-watch volunteer. The video first aired Wednesday night on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer. " Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old from Miami Gardens Feb. 26. Police said that Zimmerman told them he shot Martin in self-defense after the 6-foot high-school junior punched him, got on top of him then began banging his head into a sidewalk.

Lois Santer, 78, understood that racism still existed. But until the story of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death touched off a national debate about racial profiling, she said she never understood how widespread and insidious the problem was. Santer said she never knew about "the talk" many parents of young black men have with their sons, in which they explain that some people view black men with suspicion, and advise them to act calmly and...

Lois Santer, 78, understood that racism still existed. But until the story of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death touched off a national debate about racial profiling, she said she never understood how widespread and insidious the problem was. Santer said she never knew about "the talk" many parents of young black men have with their sons, in which they explain that some people view black men with suspicion, and advise them to act calmly and...

Man jumps from window at police HQ * 8th Street near Race A 21-year-old man being questioned by homicide detectives jumped from a window at Police Headquarters Thursday night, police said. The man hurled his body through the first-floor window and landed on an air conditioning unit, fracturing his ankle, police said. They added that the windows do not open manually. The man was in Jefferson University Hospital in stable condition. Police said the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was being questioned in connection with a fatal shooting on 21st Street near Tioga on March 13, in which the 27-year-old victim jumped from a second-story window and was pronounced dead on a porch roof.

A 33-year-old man died after being shot and run over Thursday night in Olney while a rap video was being recorded, police said. Shots rang out on Tabor Road near Fifth Street about 7 p.m., and the victim was wounded once in the head, police said. After the man was shot, he was run over by a car fleeing the scene, police said. Medics took the victim to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:42 p.m. Two men were in custody Thursday night, and authorities said witnesses had identified one as the gunman.

Lanaye Jones, 24, was arrested Saturday on charges of drunken driving and related offenses after she hit a bicyclist at 30th and Diamond Streets and then fled, Philadelphia police said. They said that immediately after Jones struck the bicyclist, at 6:55 a.m., witnesses called 911, and she was stopped by police in her 2000 Suzuki Esteem at 19th and York Streets. Jones, of the 100 block of West Sylvania Street, was taken to police headquarters and charged. The bicyclist, a 22-year-old man, was not immediately identified.