Port Richmond

On April 29, 1944, an armada of nearly 1,500 heavy bombers and escort fighters ascended from England on a treacherous journey to bomb a rail station in Berlin. Staff Sgt. Joseph J. Karaso, 21, of Miller Street in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, was the radioman on a B-24 bomber headed to Germany. It was Karaso's fourth mission. His first had been five days earlier. Karaso's bomber was hit by German fighters and tumbled in flames into a field near Hanover.

NO BULLETS were flying yesterday afternoon to spark a raucous community meeting like the one held two weeks ago at a Port Richmond tavern, but about 40 neighbors stuck to their guns and met again last night over neighborhood crime. At the Cornerstone Community Church, at Frankford and Allegheny avenues, the group, unofficially named the Port Richmond West Community Action Network, held its first official meeting, including speakers from Philly3-1-1, CeaseFirePA, Town Watch Integrated Services, and the Police and Fire departments.

OVER THE PAST two days, supporters of the two adults arrested in an attack this month on a Port Richmond coach told a radically different version of what happened. They said that Mark LaVelle was not attacked in his home and that they did not hear anyone call him a "white motherf-----. " Separately, a 17-year-old boy who was also arrested contends he was just a witness to the attack, not a doer. LaVelle, 37, yesterday disputed their accounts and maintained that he was indeed attacked after he sheltered two white teens in his house from a "mob" of blacks and Hispanics.

WHEN BAR OWNER John Boswell planned last night's community forum at his small Port Richmond watering hole, he expected a group of a few neighbors chatting and getting to know each other. Instead, he had dozens of concerned neighbors crammed into his bar, the Port Richmond Pour House, at Weikel and Clearfield streets, demanding answers he didn't have. Neighbors said what brought them there is violence and drug dealing in the neighborhood that they said had caused two shootings in the last two months, including one yesterday afternoon on Weikel Street near Ann, just a block away from the Pour House, which left three people injured.

A 28-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the head was among three people shot Wednesday afternoon in the city's Port Richmond section, police said. Police were called at 3:52 p.m. to the area of Weikel and Ann Streets where gunfire was reported. Police found the woman and transported her to Temple University Hospital. She was initially reported in critical condition, but later was upgraded to stable condition. A 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his left calf was dropped off by a private automobile to Episcopal Hospital and was reported in stable condition.

A woman was shot and killed at 3 a.m. Monday in the 2000 block of East Atlantic Street in the city's Port Richmond section, police said. Aiesha Holloway, 19, of the 2100 block of East Ontario Street, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Holloway's body was found in a white Chevrolet Cavalier, although police could not say if she had been the driver or a passenger. "We don't have a motive or a suspect at the time," a police spokeswoman said. - Michael Vitez

Water ice, soft-serve, and pierogis? It's a Port Richmond thing. When Stanley and Lisa Kopertowski reopened the Aramingo Avenue food stand Hank's, they drafted chef Stan Pliszka (Hinge Cafe), who has a solid handle on the Polish foods he grew up on. Most of his food, from kielbasa to beef, is sourced to the neighborhood. You have to try his pierogi - homemade farmer's cheese, sauerkraut, and dough, which his mother, Kathy, and fiancee, Cheryl Guy, come in to prep. Pierogis ($10 a dozen)

A second longshoreman has been killed in an accident at the Philadelphia port in little more than a week, underscoring the danger waterfront jobs can present. Vernon Knight, 54, of Philadelphia, fell Saturday from an upper deck while unloading a ship at Tioga Marine Terminal in Port Richmond. Knight, a member of Local 1291 of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), fell to his death about 1:30 p.m. Saturday while unloading the Rickmers vessel   New Orleans   docked in Port Richmond.

A woman was shot to death and another wounded Sunday afternoon in the city's Port Richmond section, police said. The women were standing in front of a rowhouse in the 2200 block of East Ann Street when shots were fired about 3:30 p.m., authorities said. A 24-year-old woman with several gunshot wounds, including one to the head, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators said she was the intended target. Her 22-year-old companion, who was seven months pregnant, was shot in a leg, police said.