Tag: philadelphia

American Airlines Flight Attendant Found Dead With Sock in Her Mouth in Hotel Room

Editor’s note: New information has come to light, and it has been confirmed that it was a “cloth” rather than a “sock” that was found in the airline attendant’s mouth, according to the New York Post.

An American Airlines attendant has been found dead in a hotel room in Philadelphia.

The attendant’s identity has not been made public. According to NBC 10 News, Chief Inspector Scott Small reported the cause of death “has not been determined.”

Small added the following details:

The attendant was 66 and a resident of Las Vegas.

The woman was found by the Marriott hotel cleaning staff. Medics responded quickly and pronounced her dead at the scene at 10:40 a.m., Monday, Sept. 25.

The woman was to have checked out two days prior.

Sealed prescription bottles were found inside the room.

Officials have verified that the attendant had been prescribed “several medications.”

The room showed no signs of forced entry or struggle.

No weapons were found inside the room.

The woman’s identity is being withheld pending an autopsy.

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Suicide ruling upheld for Philly teacher found with 20 stab wounds but judges slam ‘deeply flawed’ investigation

An appellate court panel upheld a ruling that a Philadelphia teacher found dead in 2011 with 20 stab wounds had killed herself, but slammed the police investigation as “deeply flawed,” according to court documents.

The family of Ellen Greenberg, 27, has fought for more than a decade to overturn the city’s ruling over the death of the teacher, whose corpse was riddled with stab wounds, including 10 to the back of the head and neck.

Greenberg’s family hired a team of experts in the aftermath of her death who pointed out that a knife in her apartment was overturned, possibly suggesting that she had been involved in a struggle, and a gash on the back of her head may have rendered her unconscious and unable to defend herself.

Her family has also questioned why she filled up her gas tank before coming home and didn’t leave a note indicating that she planned to take her own life.

An appellate panel ruled Wednesday that Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandra, lacked the standing for a civil suit, but the judges criticized the city police, prosecutors, the medical examiner’s office and pathologists Marlon Osbourne and Sam Gulino for blunders made in their investigation, Fox News reports.

“The facts surrounding this matter are extremely disturbing and the parents’ tireless efforts over the past 12 years to learn exactly what happened to their daughter on the evening of January 26, 2011, warrant our sincere sympathy,” Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote.

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Fired Philadelphia cop Mark Dial is charged with murder for shooting Eddie Irizarry dead FIVE SECONDS after pulling him over for ‘driving erratically’ – as police release horrific bodycam footage

Former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial has been charged with murder for killing a 27-year-old driver last month after surveillance footage showed him shooting him through his car window.

Mark Dial fatally shot motorist Eddie Irizarry through his car window in North Philadelphia on August 14 – just five seconds after he got out of his patrol car. 

Police have now also released bodycam footage of the incident, previously seen through surveillance video from a nearby home collected by the alleged victim’s family. 

Dial, who was fired a week later, has now been charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering and official oppression, the DA announced. 

He turned himself in to the police South Detectives division on Friday, with his lawyer claiming Dial believed he was in danger when he fired.

Bodycam footage shows Dial and his partner pull up next to Irizarry’s parked car before Dial exits his cruiser and begins shouting and the alleged victim. Seconds later he starts firing at Irizarry inside his car. 

Dial’s partner is then heard saying, ‘Mark, hold on. Mark, stop,’ before instructing him to move the police cruiser. 

The cops then pull Irizarry’s body out of his car and load him into the backseat of a cruiser, with Dial then driving to a hospital.  

District Attorney Larry Krasner said the footage is ‘hard to watch, and Irizarry’s family chose to watch it. 

‘There is always some level of trauma, especially for family members associated with watching something that is extremely violent… Regardless of the warnings, they wanted to see it, which we all understand, and we saw it.’

Police originally claimed Irizarry was ‘driving erratically’ before getting out of his car with a knife and lunging at officers. 

But Shaka Johnson, the lawyer representing Irizarry’s family, released surveillance footage from a nearby home to counter the police narrative at a press conference on August 23.

In the surveillance video, taken almost opposite the scene, Dial is heard yelling ‘I will f***ing shoot you,’ at Irizarry before opening fire at near point blank range through the driver’s side window.

He is then seen firing again through the windshield as he ran backward and circled around the car.

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Philadelphia Considers Zoning Restrictions on Still-Illegal Recreational Pot Shops

Recreational marijuana isn’t legal yet in Pennsylvania. That hasn’t stopped Philadelphia politicians from trying to future-proof their zoning ordinances to block recreational sales.

Philadelphia Councilmembers Brian O’Neill and Curtis Jones have proposed amendments to the city’s zoning code that would preemptively prohibit existing medical marijuana businesses in two overlay districts they represent from participating in recreational sales.

The prohibition would affect five existing medical marijuana stores, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported on the zoning amendments earlier today.

The immediate practical impacts of the amendments are minimal, given that recreational marijuana is still illegal in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers are nevertheless working on various proposals for legalizing recreational sales. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has endorsed legalizing (and heavily taxing) recreational sales.

Industry advocates say this will unfairly penalize existing medical marijuana businesses when recreational sales are eventually legalized, all because they opened up in the wrong part of town.

“If you set up a system where four or five stores can’t sell adult use and then 16 can, people are going to go to the ones” that can sell to recreational customers, says Jamie Ware, president of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition (a trade association).

Ware is also a senior vice president with Holistic Industries which operates one of the Philadelphia dispensaries that would be affected by O’Neill and Jones’ zoning amendment.

Existing businesses, she notes, are locked into longer-term commercial leases, so they can’t easily move to avoid the restrictions. If the current medical system is any guide to how future recreational businesses will be regulated, transferring a license to a new location would require state approval and could take years.

O’Neill did not immediately respond to Reason‘s request for comment. Jones told the Inquirer that while medical sales haven’t created problems, recreational sales will bring a less desirable crowd, necessitating the restrictions.

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FBI Agent Accused of Shooting Dog After Altercation With Owner

According to Philadelphia Police, Jacqueline Maguire, who has been head of the Philadelphia FBI Field Office since 2021, shot another women’s dog outside the Touraine luxury apartment building in Philadelphia earlier this month.

Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said, “When she [Jacqueline Maguire]tried to get her dog back, I think the dog attacked her.” Police say Jacqeline Maguire shot the dog shortly after. However, witnesses to the incident have taken to Instagram and Twitter to tell a different story.

One witness to the incident wrote on Instagram, “I saw the whole thing. I saw the lady pulled out the gun yelling at the owner, ‘I just shot your dog because your dog was trying to kill my dog’ I was walking my dog right across the street I did not hear any dog fighting or growing.”

Federal Whistleblower Kyle Seraphin wrote on Twitter, “Had an @fbi employee from the @FBIPhiladelphia office share this from Instagram. There is no love for this executive manager Special Agent in Charge. This excited utterance about the reason for shooting the dog is admissible and indicates a complete violation of DOJ Deadly Force Policy.”

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Philadelphia gas station owner hires heavily armed guards to protect business: ‘We are tired of this nonsense’

A Philadelphia gas station owner fed up with incessant crime threatening his employees and customers hired heavily armed security guards to watch over his business. 

Neil Patel, operator of a Karco gas station at Broad and Clearfield streets in North Philadelphia, recruited Pennsylvania S.I.T.E Agents clad with Kevlar vest and AR-15s or shotguns. 

“They are forcing us to hire the security, high-level security, state level,” Patel told FOX 29. “We are tired of this nonsense; robbery, drug trafficking, hanging around, gangs.” 

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Former Congressman Sentenced to Prison for Stuffing Pennsylvania Ballot Boxes

Despite declarations of safe and secure elections, history shows that past Pennsylvania elections were host to corruption.

For example, former U.S. Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, a Pennsylvania Democrat, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records, conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election, and orchestrating schemes to fraudulently stuff ballot boxes for specific Democrat candidates in Pennsylvania elections held from 2014 to 2018.

Myers was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond to 30 months in prison, three years supervised release, and ordered to pay $100,000 in fines, with $10,000 of that due immediately, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero.

Directly after Tuesday’s Philadelphia hearing, Myers, 79, was taken into custody.

Myers served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979 until 1980 when he was caught taking bribes in an FBI sting operation. That was part of an old, completed investigation.

Tuesday’s sentencing was a new matter in which Myers admitted that he bribed Domenick J. Demuro, a Democrat Judge of Elections for the 39th Ward, 36th Division in South Philadelphia, over several years to add votes for certain Democrat candidates.

Some candidates’ campaigns had hired Myers, and others were candidates that he favored. He admitted that he was paid consulting fees in cash or checks, then used portions of these funds to pay election officials to tamper with election results.

This included judicial seats and various federal, state, and local offices.

Myers also admitted to conspiring to commit election fraud with another former Judge of Elections, Democrat Marie Beren, in the 39th Ward, 2nd Division in South Philadelphia.

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Cops finally reopen ‘suicide’ case of 27-year-old Philadelphia teacher found by fiancé in her apartment with 20 stab wounds – including ten to the BACK of her head

Investigators are reviewing evidence from the crime scene of a 27-year-old teacher from Philadelphia they say may have been staged to appear as a suicide nearly a decade ago.

Ellen Greenberg was found in her kitchen apartment with 20 stab wounds on January 26, 2011, by her fiancé Sam Goldberg.

Her death was initially ruled as a homicide before Medical Examiner Marlon Osbourne changed it to suicide.

Greenberg had 10 stab wounds to the neck and back of the head, with an additional 10 to her stomach, abdomen, and chest. A knife was still plunged into her heart.

The case has since been handed to the Chester District Attorney’s Office for re-review as evidence suggests the crime scene was staged based on the position her body was found and the angle of dry blood across her face.

‘In all my years of experience, and all of the homicides that I’ve done, and suicides, I’ve never seen anything like this,’ forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht told Fox News Digital as he claimed suicide is ‘highly unlikely.’

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Democratic Philly Mayor Wants To Arrest Man for Defending Himself During Mass Shooting

Democratic Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney, who during last year’s historic crime wave cut police funding, wants to throw a man in jail for defending himself during a mass shooting, even as the city’s far-left district attorney admits the man was acting in self-defense.

Prosecutors told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Gregory Jackson, 34, shot Micah Towns, 23, leading Towns to return fire and kill Jackson. In the melee that followed, a third man, Quran Garner, 18, pulled a gun and began firing into a nearby crowd. While police told the Inquirer that “the precise sequence of the confrontation was unclear” and that more gunmen might have been involved, the incident left 3 people dead and 12 wounded.

Kenney said during a virtual gun-violence briefing that “anybody who fired a gun that day should be locked up.” The mayor said Towns, who remains hospitalized in critical condition, is partially responsible for escalating the shooting because he didn’t walk away from the fight.

Kenney’s call to jail Towns comes as mainstream media sources claim that “a good guy with a gun” is “a myth” and “a deadly American fantasy.” Towns is far from the only armed individual to try to stop a mass shooting, however. Just weeks earlier, an armed off-duty Border Patrol agent helped evacuate Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, during the May 24 mass shooting at the school.

Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner (D.), a soft-on-crime prosecutor who has received more than a million dollars from liberal megadonor George Soros, blasted the mayor’s words, saying Towns was acting in self-defense.

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Federal authorities arrest accused Liberian war criminal ‘Dragon Master’ living in Philadelphia

A Liberian immigrant living in Philadelphia has been arrested by federal authorities and charged with fraudulently hiding his background as a high-ranking member of a rebel group — he called himself “Dragon Master” — that is accused of committing atrocities during a Liberian civil war.

Laye Sekou Camara, of Southwest Philadelphia, is accused of lying about his background in 2011 to obtain a visa to enter the United States and then later to obtain a green card.

Camara then allegedly used the green card to falsely characterize his background on a Pennsylvania identification application in 2017, according to a criminal complaint submitted to Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lloret and publicly filed last week. Camara is charged with the use of an immigration document obtained by fraud.

In news accounts dating back to 2003, during and shortly after the conflict known as the Second Liberian Civil War, prosecutors say Camera is identified as a brigadier general with the rebel faction known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD. Liberia’s first civil war was fought for most of the 1990s and left hundreds of thousands of civilians dead.

U.S. authorities have led the charge in recent years to bring Liberian war criminals to justice — particularly in Philadelphia, where thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict were relocated in the 1990s and 2000s.

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