Tacony

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. Their names were not released Thursday night.

The trial for Linda Ann Weston and her alleged accomplices, accused of imprisoning four mentally disabled adults in a Tacony basement last fall, has been set for January 2013. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 28. The trial, which could last up to 10 weeks, would be scheduled to run for four days out of each week, attorneys said. Weston, 52, described by authorities as the ringleader of the group, is charged with kidnapping and assault, among other offenses. Also charged are Gregory Thomas, 48, Weston's boyfriend; Jean McIntosh, Weston's 32-year-old daughter, and Eddie Wright, 51. Prosecutors have alleged that they kidnapped the adults to steal their Social Security checks, then moved them around the country to escape detection by authorities.

TYRIRK HARRIS, the Tacony man who riddled his neighbor with bullets in February after the man complained about Harris' dogs relieving themselves on his lawn, fired his gun out of fear, his attorney argued in court Tuesday. Franklin Manuel Santana, 47, was legally drunk and leveled threats when he came to Harris' front door on Torresdale Avenue between Magee Avenue and Hellerman Street on Feb. 14, defense attorney Jack McMahon said during a preliminary hearing. Harris, 27, was minding his own business when Santana "invaded his domain, his castle.

A 27-year-old man was shot and critically wounded by police after he allegedly tried to run down an officer Monday evening in the city's Tacony section, police said. The man, who was suspected of being involved in narcotics, was fleeing police in the 6300 block of Edmund Street at approximately 6:12 p.m. when he allegedly tried to drive a car at an officer and was shot once in the left side, police said. A medic unit transported the man to Aria Health-Torresdale Campus and was listed in critical condition.

The judge did what he could: sentencing Susan Coulter's antagonists, the women who had threatened to kill her and her child because she testified at a double-murder trial. What he could not do was restore Coulter's sense of safety in her neighborhood. "I'm scared for my life," a weeping Coulter told Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner on Thursday. "I beg you not to let people like this hurt people. " Lerner tried to reassure Coulter but said there was a limit to what he could do to former neighbors Theresa Merlo and Tara McDowell.

About 100 people gathered for a candlelight vigil Thursday evening in Tacony to call for heightened police presence at the site where a businessman was killed in January. Xiang Huang, 27, was shot to death Jan. 20 in front of his wife and baby during an attempted robbery of the takeout restaurant he and his wife owned, Jin House, at Longshore Avenue and Tulip Street. "This is all too common for Chinese immigrants in the city, and we have lived in silence and fear for too far," said Jian Wong, 55, Philadelphia Fujian Association president.

The Tacony Academy Charter School is closed for instruction for a second day after a student threatened to get a gun to rob a store. There was no direct threat to the school or its students, but the student's statement apparently triggered a social media panic that made it appear the school was targeted, according to police. No arrests have been made, but police know the identity of the 15-year-old student and are investigating. The school's website tells students that school is closed today, but instructed teachers to report to work at 10 a.m. Tacony Academy also was closed yesterday.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - For the first time in more than a decade, Edwin Sanabria awoke Christmas morning to find presents under the tree with his name on them. On New Year's Eve, he dressed in a pin-striped suit and tie, perched a cardboard top hat on his head, and posed for pictures. He had fun. "Too much fun," Sanabria, who turns 32 this month, said with a smile. "I got drunk. " Sanabria, one of four mentally disabled adults who were found imprisoned in a Tacony cellar in October, is free.

A dispute over dog waste in the city's Tacony section Tuesday afternoon culminated in the fatal shooting of a man and the arrest of a neighbor, police said. The shooting occurred at 4:08 p.m. outside a home on the 6500 block of Torresdale Avenue, police said. The 47-year-old victim, who lived on the block, was pronounced dead at the scene, and a 27-year-old man was taken into custody. Residents said the two were next-door neighbors. The men were "involved in an ongoing dispute over dog feces," Chief Inspector Scott Small said.