POLICE ARREST TWO FOR AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
Two Temple Police officers were assaulted in two separate incidents April 9 on the 1600 and 1700 blocks of French Street, according to university crime logs.
The first incident occurred at 12:05 a.m. outside 1601 French St. when police tried to separate two men engaging in an argument, said Charlie Leone, executive director of Campus Safety Services.
20-year-old Wallic Maull punched Officer Elijah Lewis in the face once the argument was broken up, Leone said. Maull was immediately arrested and charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another and disorderly conduct, according to court records.
Almost two hours later, Leone said Temple Police responded to what “started out as a domestic” incident.
He said a 17-year-old girl threw a brick through the windshield of her ex-boyfriend’s car. When police placed her in a patrol car, she attempted to kick out its windows, he added. Officer William Egan attempted to subdue the girl, and she spit in his face, Leone said.
Leone explained that the incident was reported as an aggravated assault because bodily fluid is considered dangerous.
Neither suspect was Temple-related or had alcohol or other illegal substances, Leone said.
-Julie Christie
POSSIBLE ROBBERY AT WILLIAM PENN HIGH SCHOOL
Thirty-year-old Zachary Ducko will face a preliminary hearing today after Temple Police arrested him for stealing $10,000 worth of copper from William Penn High School over winter break, according to Temple Police.
Ducko and another suspect, Robert Lewandowski, allegedly broke into the school by cutting a hole in a fence and then accessing the high school through the lower level ramp, said Executive Director of Campus Safety Services Charlie Leone.
Leone said Detective Chad Harvey eventually “cracked the case” after reviewing security footage from a nearby charter school.
The video showed that two men entered the school around 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Day with their pickup truck parked alongside the building, Leone said. He added they spent about two hours inside the school removing copper.
Leone said the two men returned a week later but were stopped by Philadelphia Police for loitering.
“Detective Harvey spent hours viewing video from the charter school and working with their computer services folks pulling together the stills,” Leone said.
Philadelphia Police arrested Ducko April 5 at 12:35 a.m. before transporting him to Philadelphia Police’s 9th District Headquarters, Leone said. According to court records, Ducko was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing, conspiracy, criminal mischief, theft and receiving stolen property.
Leone said Lewandowski is still wanted.
-Julie Christie
RESTAURANT NEAR MAIN CAMPUS BRIEFLY CLOSED
The Philadelphia Department of Health temporarily shut down the Wendy’s restaurant at 1708 N. Broad St. near the Liacouras Center after an inspection on April 13.
According to a report filed by Office of Food Protection Inspector Tanisha Robinson, the restaurant had three new and two repeat violations.
Robinson cited the restaurant for first-time violations of not being knowledgeable of Pennsylvania Food Code and having employees with “persistent sneezing, coughing, and/or [a] runny nose” as a result of excessive smoke in the preparation area due to poor ventilation.
The report said repeat violations included the women’s restroom trash can missing a lid for sanitary napkin disposal and broken ceiling tiles in the storage room.
“Due to conditions observed during the inspection … the establishment has agreed to discontinue food operations and voluntarily close until it is approved by the Department [of Public Health] to resume operations,” the report summary stated.
-Julie Christie
MAYOR JOINS NATIONWIDE EFFORT FOR LGBT RIGHTS
Mayor Jim Kenney joined 10 other mayors across the country on Saturday in a pledge against any places that pass anti-LGBT laws.
The pledge, titled Mayors Against Discrimination, is an agreement among the 10 mayors that they will not do business with North Carolina or Mississippi and will not allow public funds to be used for travel expenses to those states, CBS3 reported.
Kenney told CBS the steps these mayors in the pledge are similar to those that brought down apartheid in the 1990s.
The actual impact of the pledge on Philadelphia’s travel is unclear.
-Gillian McGoldrick
CITY EARNS $3.5 MILLION TO LOWER PRISONER COUNT
Philadelphia has received a $3.5 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to help fund a plan to cut the city’s prison population by more than 30 percent during the next three years, the Inquirer reported.
The foundation picked Philadelphia from a pool of 191 applicants. The grant will be used in a variety of ways to try to keep nonviolent offenders out of the prison system, move those already incarcerated out of prison more quickly, and use more alternative headquarters, the Inquirer reported.
There are more than 7,000 people in the Philadelphia Prison System, according to city statistics.
The project costs $6.1 million—$2.1 million of which will be paid by the city, and $500,000 through private sources, the Inquirer reported.
-Steve Bohnel
ALUMNUS WINS PULTIZER
An alumnus from the School of Media and Communication won his second Pulitzer Prize yesterday.
Joby Warrick, who graduated with a journalism degree in 1982, won a Pulitzer in General Nonfiction for his novel “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.” He visited SMC March 14 to discuss the novel.
“Black Flags” is “a deeply reported book of remarkable clarity showing how the flawed rationale for the Iraq War led to the explosive growth of the Islamic State,” according to the Pulitzer Prizes’ official website.
Warrick, a reporter for the Washington Post since 1996, previously won a Pulitzer for Public Service with two colleagues that same year for exploring hog waste pollution in North Carolina.
-Steve Bohnel
