Transcripts For WPHL Action News At Ten On PHL17 20140924 :

Shirleen, it has been a difficult far for students at Delaware Valley Charter School today. They mourned 15 yearold iish a ramon, gathering at her locker in tear filled embraces. Shes described by her school and as her friend as bright, cheerful and energetic young lady and one that will be sorely missed. Homicide detective a 19 yearold day yan person fired several shot near einstein hospital during what amount todd a petty kids fight, and mostly involving student at Delaware Valley charter. When the shooting ended two people were shot. Stray bullet hit a 19 yearold man. He lived. A single stray bullet the hit rahman in the back and she did not. I love her. When you think bit, it is why her. She didnt have anything to to with it. That 19 yearold survivor was in critical condition, at last check. And as for Police Spokesperson says he now faces a murder charge, in that Young Students death, shirleen. All right, brian. Three people are now charged in the attack of a gay couple, in center city. Bucks county natives are expect to turn themselves into central detectives tomorrow, and that is where action News Reporter Kenneth Moton is gathering details, tonight. Kenneth . Reporter shirleen, the the list of charges is long, from criminal conspiracy to aggravated assault. In the next 24 hours, police say they expect for those two men and one woman to be in custody. Their allege actions at 16th and chancellor streets in center city spark outrage across social media. Now the Philadelphia District attorney has name 24 year old philip williams, 26 yearold Kevin Harrigan and 24 year old Catherine Knott all of bucks county with the violent beating of a gay couple. Three people lives where to change drastically and the victims are asking that everybody just keep their language respectful and in the hateful. Reporter victims friend karen says before the charges the victims spent more time with central detective and prosecutors. It is very emotionally taxing on them. They are so still reliving it all. It is tough. Reporter men maintain they were attacked on that night of september 11th because of their Sexual Orientation. What we were able to determine there was some type of bumping into each and then things moved forward. Reporter because of the group of suspects who were out on the town the investigation took time. Once the d. A. Approved charges arrangements were made for the the suspects to turn themselves in. Why not arrest them immediately. It is a situation where attorneys made communication to bring their clients n courtesy in terms of the central detective reached out to the attorneys making it an easy process to come in as opposed to using Additional Resources reports report action news has confirmed that catherine not the not is daughter of bucks county 30 he lease chief karl knott. At their home no one answered. But when we asked several neighbors about the charges against knott, off camera, they would only say, that they are not surprised. And, d. A. Seth williams said tonight that vicious attack shocked the country, and the assault on people because of their Sexual Orientation has in place in philadelphia. Reporting live from central detectives in Spring Garden tonight Kenneth Moton for action news at ten on phl17, shirleen. Kenneth, thank you for that update. In the wake of this attack, lawmakers in harrisburg today called for an expansion of pennsylvanias hate crime statute. State senator larry farnase joined with his openly gay collogues state representative brian simms, and others, urging the the immediate adoption of the law that would include protections for lgbt citizens. Simms says that what happened to that center city couple under scores the need to strengthen existing laws. Lesbian, gay, by sexual and transgender, get used to it, there is a million of news this state and we deserve same rights and protections as everybody else. During todays News Conference senator jim furlow of pittsburgh formally came out as gay. A Garnett Valley middle schoolteacher was arrested accused of having sex with a former student. William barber had an inappropriate relationship with that 15 yearold victim, dull minute nateing in an assault at the school september 12th. Barber is a physical ed teacher and football and basketball coach. His family was featured on action news last week for their effort to raise money for pediatric cancer research. Barbers four yearold daughter has brain cancer. Philadelphias struggling Public Schools are getting the money that they wanted and needed, it is coming from smokers in the form of a new cigarette tax. Action News Reporter Sharrie Williams talk to the superintendent about what this means, but sharrie, you also talk to some unhappy smokers, as well. Reporter and shirleen there are some varying opinions and emotions with this. Yes, School District is exited to necessity it will get funding that it wants and needs but smokers arent excited and neither are some of the business owners. For example, any of the business own hours sell cigarettes who are on the bordering towns so to speak of philadelphia, for instance here on one side of the street along city line avenue is philadelphia, on the other side, of course, it is not, they are concerned that they are customers will go across the street buy their cigarettes elsewhere. They are soon to be even more sticker shock if you buy these in the city of philadelphia. The state senate joined the house in passing a 2 per pack tax, on cigarettes, sold in philadelphia. Thinking it is a lot of money, 2, it goes a long way. Reporter money generated will will go toward cash strapped philadelphia School District, which has been lobbying for more fund for months. Were thrilled and relieved this has finally come to fruition. Reporter superintendent doctor william hite started this school year with a 81 milliondollar deficit. District balanced budget on the hope of this bill passing. We wanted assurances and today it has paid off, and, in fact, im glad we did not have to reduce staff and eliminate programs. Reporter current pennsylvania tax for a pack of cigarettes is 1. 60. The new tax for philadelphia adds 2 to that plus 8 percent sales tax, which is already higher then most of the state. Not only do we pay tax but a lot of things they could cut. Reporter he wants the schools to succeed but as a smoker and taxpayer he wishes there was another way. Really just taxing another thing. Tax beverages. Yall taxing everything. Just another way to just, you know, i guess keep your hand in your pocket. Reporter it is about to be reality very soon. Governor corbett said all along he would sign this bill, into law, if it passed and if that signing is expect tomorrow morning. Live from philadelphia, Sharrie Williams, action news at ten on phl17. All right, thanks sharrie. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts, tomorrow the clouds are coming in, and they are bringing lots of rain with them. Meteorologist adam joseph has word from accu weather at the big game. Shirleen we are watching a few clouds creeping up from the south but generally it is a clear sky out there tonight and tomorrow morning for the rush hour still some filtered sunshine, and sunglasses but those clouds will thicken up tomorrow afternoon and our coastal storm is very weak right now just off the coast of georgia, and the state of florida. As you can see on the radar it is not very intense. It will remain a very weak coastal storm as it lifts to the north but it will bring a good soaking rain and a rain that we really need after a dry spell. Future tracker at 10 00 tomorrow morning rain is still down over virginias and carolinas. Still see some sunshine around here but then as we get in the locality are part of the evening hours and offer night wednesday at 10 00 p. M. It is when the showers start to arrive and even some pockets of heavier rain waiting from washington down to richmond. As we look at your time line with this event wednesday night into thursday, rain arrives from the south to the north between 6 00 and 10 00, so even after the evening rush hour for most. The heavier rain is overnight while we are sleeping. It will be a wet thursday morning rush hour that will slow the commute and in general we are looking at one to 2 inches of rain and pockets of 3 inches. It looks like a lot of rain but we need it and overall we can handle it with our waterways. When we come back we will talk about when the rain exit and summer making a return already, brian. We will have those numbers in the seven day. One day of fall, thanks, adam. Schools reopened in the pocono mountain School District. Students there missed four days of classes as Police Continue their manhunt for eric frein. The 31 yearold is accused of ambushing and killing a state trooper at Blooming Grove barracks on september 12th. There is still 175,000 reward for information, leading to freins capture. U. S. And arab allies carried out hundreds of air strikes overnight in syria taking outer wrist target, some of them believed to be plot ago begins the united states. Military solved the star up of the International Campaign center on the isis strong holds target includes isis headquarters, depots and financial centers. The the u. S. Simultaneously hit an al qaeda cell near city of alepo. Last night we took strikes against plotting by season al qaeda operativeness syria known as the the corzine group. Pentagon Officials Say they have been closely watching, the the group and believed the group was nearing the execution phase of the large scale attacks against western target. Police in newark are looking for one suspect as they investigate two arson attempts, both of which started inside victims apartments. In the first case the shirtless suspect entered an apartment on the 100 block of victoria tour and set mail on fire on the stove. The resident managed to put out the flames, the same shirtless suspect, did the same thing at a neighboring apartment minutes later using a roll of paper towels on the stove. There were no injuries, in either case. Still to come on this full hour of action news at ten tonight an eagles star has an apology for his teammates. Also tough times in Atlantic City are about to get even tougher, there is word that hundreds more jobs are on the line and they are not at any casinos. And who could ever forget philadelphia favorite Little Leaguer mone davis, Baseball Hall of fame is making sure no one does. Wedding crashers in ocean county and not the fun kind police are looking for trio of unwanted guests tonight. Guess what . The money we need to fund our schools lies right underneath your feet. Thats right. Down in the ground, pennsylvania has deep deposits of natural gas. But because of governor corbett, were the only state in the country that doesnt make oil and Gas Companies pay an extraction tax. As governor, ill make the Gas Companies pay up to help fund our schools for a change. Tom wolf for governor. A fresh start for pennsylvania. Sky six is looking live at the Atlantic City boardwalk casinos. They have been shrinking in number but today, the citys mayor announced the latest economic hit is taking a slice out of the municipal government. Action News Reporter dann cuellar explains why this means more job losses. Reporter even before the shut down of the four Atlantic City casinos and prospect of losing another the taj mahal in november Atlantic City was already in dire straits losing billions from the down turn in the casino business so mayor don guardian says it is no surprise that the city will to have cut 300 jobs. At first they thought it could be done in the year 2017 but now. I need to ramp that up. We need to do it by june of next year. Today city sent a letter to all city workers telling them that the city will file a layoff plan with the state october 1st. State then has 30 days to approve. Mayor says they are looking at everything. Are we providing services that the county of atlantic or state of new jersey already provided . The answer is yes. I think that is whole department that is we will be cutting out. Reporter like what . I dont think im comfortable discuss ago this right now. Reporter mayor ace begins eliminating the Atlantic City Police Department in favor of the county run department but he says changes are coming there too. Were determining now in the next few weeks, again, by the end of september, how many positions we will have in our Police Department, what the salary is going to be. Reporter mayor believes that half of the jobs could be eliminated through attrition. He vows City Services will not suffer. Even with the jobs that we have lost so far this year were picking up trash the way we have always pick up trash, we are cleaning our streets five times a week where we used to clean them just once every two weeks. Reporter with more layoffs on the horizon for this city, about the only glimmer of hope is that the recently closed revel, mega resort and casino could have a new owner as early as tomorrow, bringing with that, the prospect of regaining some of the jobs that were recently lost. In Atlantic City, dann cuellar for action news at ten on phl17. Still surreal to see that revel resort dark on a nate like this. Accu Weather Forecast watching that unsettled skies moving in. Meteorologist adam joseph is tracking it all at the big board tonight. And before the clouds thicken up and rain moves in we had a breathtaking sunset on this first inning of fall. This particular picture sent into me by nancy on my Facebook Page from parkesburg p in the western part of the chester county. You can see those sir us cloud about 20,000 feet up and with the longer wave lengths of sunlight in the horizon, kind of bouncing off of the ice crystals the displays, beautiful red orange and yellow and i encourage you to not only follow us on social media but share mother natures good and bad side and ill share them with you. As we look at statistics today 72 in philadelphia. The High Temperature 3 degrees below normal. This morning we started at 50 which is the coolest number in over four months, for philadelphia, the record is 40 degrees, and 97, right now it is cooling off north and west, 55 in allentown. Reading at 57 degrees. Wilmington dropping down to 59, trenton beat ago this number by one at 58 ape in the city of philadelphia, warmer at 61 degrees. Low pressure starting to take shape down to the south and this will track along the eastern seaboard and it will counter act high to the east and that means a strong wind coming from the east south east that will pile up water during times of high tides for wednesday night and thursday but the clouds will first arrive tomorrow morning at 8 00 with some sunshine especially north and west, cloud thicken up in the afternoon and evening and by about 6 30 we will start to see some showers breaking up in southern delaware and southern new jersey but for the morning rush it is dry with temperatures in the 50s. So seasonably cool with a mixture of sunshine and clouds. As we go region by region throughout the afternoon tomorrow again sunshine for better part of the day, cloud in the afternoon and breeze which lower 70s for highs for pottstown, allentown to reading along i95 right around 72, 73 degrees. The west chester, glassboro and salem as sun fade and clouds increase and at the shore a lot of clouds and youll feel that easterly wind 15 to 20 miles an hour, with tides between 07 and surf city to 17 in sea isle city. We will take a closer look at future tracker and show you when heavier rain comes through tomorrow night into thursday and again that summer weather, coming back by the weekend. Making a come back, thank you. A team may not of won Little League world series but mone davis is bound for Baseball Hall of fame anyway. The pitching phenom says she will donate jersey she wore last month when she pitched that two hit shut out becoming first girl to win a game at the world series. She and her taney dragons teammates plan to visit cooperstown on thursday. They will also play a game at storied double day field. What an experience. Absolutely. Philadelphia eagle is apologizing tonight for his high profile complaint about practice. Jeff skversky is in for Ducis Rodgers tonight in the action news Sports Center and jeff, Cary Williams is doing some backtracking. A little bit, yeah. Before eagles start focusing on the 49ers today corner Cary Williams stood up in front of the entire team and said sorry. Jamie apody has more on that. Obviously think it isnt necessarily the best policy all the time. Reporter most candid player said he learn lessons mainly to keep his opinions close to the vest. Cary williams stood up and apologized for his comments about chip kellys practices, players too drain to perform well during the game. I made that mistake by bringing media into it. I have to do better, especially when i accept that leadership role. Im one of the oldest guys in the locker room. I should know better. Reporter you felt the need to apologize, so