Rap

A man who fell to the ground after gunfire rang out during the taping of a rap video Thursday night in Olney was not shot at all, it turns out. Police on Friday said the man tripped or stumbled as the crowd of more than 100 people panicked and tried to flee the scene. The man, whose name has not been released, had the misfortune to land near a car that ran over him. He died from injuries suffered during the accident, said Philadelphia Capt. James Clark, head of the homicide unit.

A MAN WHO viciously attacked a Chinese takeout owner in West Oak Lane nearly two years ago was charged Wednesday with murder because the victim died of his injuries last week. The District Attorney's Office filed the murder charge against Malik Niblack, who is serving a six-to-15-year sentence in state prison after having pleaded guilty last year to attempted murder in the attack. On the morning of June 8, 2010, Niblack, then 21, ambushed owner Jicun Wu outside his takeout store on 66th Avenue near Uber Street.

PORT ORCHARD, WASH. - Crying and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, a frightened 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting a classmate sat before a juvenile-court judge yesterday as his father gently rubbed his back. Bail was set at $50,000 during the preliminary hearing, and ultimately the court will determine whether the third-grader will face criminal charges as an 8-year-old girl remains critically wounded. "I just want everyone to know that my kid made a mistake.

Along this strip of Germantown Avenue where business is cheap and quick, prayer is its own commodity. Places of worship have staked their claim amid the take-out food stores, discount shops, abandoned buildings, and blue lights from a police surveillance camera on the corner, near Silver Street. Inside the storefront Philly Open Air Church this mild Wednesday night, the youth-study Bible lesson is on the power of forgiveness, out of the book of Matthew. The circle of nine - mostly teenage boys and young men - sit on worn couches in a conversation that turns to violence.

KINGSTON, JAMAICA - King Stitt, a pioneer in rap reggae, died yesterday in his Caribbean homeland of Jamaica. He was 72. Stitt died at his home in the capital of Kingston after a long fight with prostate cancer and diabetes, said Jamaican musicologist Bunny Goodison, who was a close friend to the performer for more than 50 years. Stitt had recently been discharged from a public hospital. The entertainer, known offstage as Winston Sparks, started his musical career in the late 1950s on Kingston's circuit of sound systems, a sort of portable disco.

KERMIT B. Gosnell, the West Philadelphia abortion doctor facing state murder charges, pleaded not guilty yesterday to federal drug charges. Gosnell, 70, who has been in state custody, was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Henry S. Perkin to be detained by the Bureau of Prisons on the federal charges. No trial date has been set. Federal proscecutors charged Gosnell last month with using his medical office as a "pill mill" to dispense thousands of prescriptions for highly addictive painkillers to cash-paying customers between 2008 and January 2010.

SPOTSWOOD, N.J. - A 12-year-old tells Gov. Christie he was unfairly busted at school for bullying because the "Jewish community" controls the school board. A woman who says she's the victim of a conspiracy asks the governor for a job. And a retired teacher, who says she is a former teacher of the year, advises him not to change the tenure system or else teachers will have to have sex with their bosses to keep their jobs. To which Christie responded, straight-faced: "I don't want teachers to have to sleep with the principal.

NEW YORK - How does Oscar-nominated actor Danny Aiello communicate with his nine grandchildren? Through rap music. The 78-year-old said his grandchildren loved his singing but couldn't remember his songs until he added rap. "They went crazy over it [and] now they know all the words to the entire songs," he said. Aiello, nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing, recently released his new album, Bridges. It's a collaborative effort with rapper-songwriter Damon Hasan, who has produced music for Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, and Jennifer Lopez.

LOS ANGELES - Heavy D, 44, the self-proclaimed "overweight lover" of hip-hop who became one of rap's top hit-makers with wit, humor, and a positive vibe, died Tuesday. Lt. Mark Rosen of the Beverly Hills police said that officers were dispatched to Heavy D's condominium building after receiving a report of an unconscious person. He was transported to Cedars Sinai Medical Center, where he died. Rosen said Heavy D "was returning home from shopping. He experienced difficulty breathing while walking into his condominium building.

HOUSTON - A murder charge has been dismissed against an ailing 76-year-old woman who spent more than four decades on the run after being accused of killing her husband by dousing him with hot grease. Mary Ann Rivera, who needs an oxygen tank to breathe, was arrested Oct. 11 after a Texas investigator tracked her down in Lake Park, Ga. She was brought back to Houston to face the murder charge. She allegedly threw grease on her husband, Cruz, in October 1970 at their Houston home.