The father of a Philadelphia man who was killed in an ATV crash this spring said police officers pursued his son moments before he drove the wrong way down a one-way street, ran a red light, and collided with a sedan.
Sterling Jones, 22, was killed on May 9 after the crash in North Philadelphia, according to police.
Lawyers for Jones’ father, Sterling Lamont Jones Sr., said his son and a group of friends had been riding off-road vehicles near Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue when officers from the police ATV and dirt bike detail spotted the young men popping wheelies and began a pursuit.
They followed Jones up Broad Street to West Thompson Street, the attorneys said. There he briefly sped in the wrong direction down the one-way street and ran a red light before striking an Uber driver’s Toyota sedan at the intersection as it turned onto 15th Street.
He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.
Sterling Jones Sr., 57, has since hired a team of attorneys to investigate the incident. Late last month, they filed a notice of intent to sue the city, alleging that the officers and the department violated Jones’ constitutional rights when they chased him and caused his fatal injuries.
Sterling Jones, a 22-year-old who lawyers say was killed in an ATV crash after being chased by police officers.Courtesy of Sterling Lamont Jones Sr.
Riding ATVs and dirt bikes on public streets in Philadelphia is against the law, and police have increased efforts to crack down on that behavior in recent years.
But the incident raises questions about whether the officers followed a department directive barring vehicular pursuits for all but the most serious offenses — a policy enacted because of the public safety risks posed by such chases, particularly in densely populated areas.
The initial police account of the incident did not mention that officers had been pursuing Jones before the crash. It could not be learned whether the department had since concluded that officers were engaged in a pursuit and whether it was conducted a high rate of speed, as the lawyers contend.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said the incident is under investigation by the department’s internal affairs bureau. He declined to comment further, referring questions to the city’s law department.
A spokesperson for the law department said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Surveillance footage gathered by lawyers for Jones’ father and viewed by The Inquirer showed at least eight police officers on dirt bikes, a squad car, and a tow vehicle tailing Jones that evening.
Around 9:23 p.m., Jones was seen cutting through a Sunoco gas station and speeding down West Thompson Street with dirt bike officers close behind. Within seconds, his ATV careened into the driver’s side of the sedan.
Under police department policy, vehicular chases are allowed only in situations in which officers believe they can prevent imminent danger to others, or if a suspect is either fleeing after committing a violent felony or in possession of a deadly weapon used in a crime.
And while riding off-road vehicles violates city code, attorneys for Sterling Jones Sr. say that type of infraction still should not trigger a police chase.
“The police department’s policy is, in our view, clearly violated,” said Thomas Kline of Kline & Specter, which is handling the case alongside the firm Hill & Associates.
A 2025 Inquirer investigation found police in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania were conducting hazardous and unnecessary chases, disproportionately endangering young people. Roughly half of all reported pursuits conducted by city police were not justified under department policy, the investigation found.
A police department spokesperson attributed the increase in chases to the COVID-era surge in violent crime, and said the department investigates every crash for policy violations.
Between 2020 and last year, records show, the city had paid out $20 million in crash- or chase-related settlements as a result of such chases.
In 2017, a 6-year-old girl and her great-aunt were seriously injured when they were struck by a dirt bike rider who was being chased by Philadelphia police into Upper Darby Township. The city settled a lawsuit with their attorneys for nearly $3 million last year.
Sterling Jones Sr. said that while he was planning to sue, no amount of money could make up for the loss of his son.
The young man was a graduate of Hunting Park Christian Academy and had been working for two years as a delivery driver for the U.S. Postal Service before his death. He had bought the ATV with money from that job, his father said.
“He wasn’t a criminal. He had a license,” he said.
Jones Sr. learned of the crash in the early morning of Mother’s Day, when his son’s mother came to his house to tell him Jones was dead.
He said he hired lawyers with the aim of ensuring that the officers who pursued his son would be reprimanded and removed from the beat.
“They killed my only son,” he said. “I just want justice.”
Philadelphia’s only free sexual assault exam center was so strapped for funding last spring that Drexel University, its former operator, started drafting a closure announcement.
The school was facing financial strain of its own, and state funding to rape crisis nonprofits was tied up amid a prolonged budget impasse in Harrisburg. Emergency funding from the city was tangled in City Hall’s lengthy contracting process.
At the time, there was no plan for who would run the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center (PSARC), where roughly 300 rape survivors a year go for the sexual assault exams used to collect forensic evidence that are commonly known as “rape kits,” which often play a key role in prosecuting assaults.
Fast-forward to this month, when Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration announced the city’s public health department will assume all control of PSARC. Officials presented the news as the culmination of a careful, collaborative handoff, and one city staffer framed the transition in a news release as “seamless.”
But hundreds of emails obtained by The Inquirer through a right-to-know request and a review of public records tell a far messier story. The emails show that for more than a year the fate of PSARC lurched from one near-miss to the next and that a failed bid process forced the city to take over the center’s operations when no one else would.
Taken together, the records offer a granular view of how a critical piece of the city’s safety net for sexual assault survivors nearly broke. And they portray a chaotic process in which the city for months sought to transfer control of the center from Drexel to the nonprofit WOAR Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, even as WOAR faced its own budgetary implosion.
Over the course of the last year, the exam center never shut its doors to patients. But it came close on several occasions, a collapse that would have had ripple effects in hospital emergency rooms across the region that typically route sexual assault patients to the center.
If PSARC suspended operations, hospitals would have to find specially trained staff — of which there are few — to perform the exams.
“Philadelphia emergency rooms were not ready for that,” said Lila Slovak, director of the Philadelphia office of the Women’s Law Project, who spent months warning city officials that PSARC was in danger. “They did not know that [the center] was at risk of closing. It was not on anybody’s radar.”
Crystal Yates-Gale, the city’s deputy managing director for health and human services, said in a statement that the final outcome — the city running the center — is ultimately what is best for sexual assault survivors.
“We are proud to have secured the continuity of vital services for victims of crime in a dignified, victim-centered, culturally-competent atmosphere in Philadelphia,” she said.
The exam room at the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday Dec. 6, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
She said WOAR was transparent with the city about its financial position.
“Like most Commonwealth-funded providers, we planned on the assumption that funding would resume,” Anthony said. “The impasse instead ran 135 days. By the time it ended, we had drawn down our reserves.”
A lifeline center on a shoestring budget
PSARC, located at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave. in North Philadelphia, has two full-time staff members and a network of about 15 contracted nurses trained to perform sexual assault forensic exams, provided free under Pennsylvania law. The procedures are intended to gather physical evidence, such as DNA left behind by an assailant, and to document injuries that may aid investigators in a future criminal investigation.
Many hospitals lack the specialized staff required to perform sexual assault forensic exams, so they refer patients to PSARC or work with PSARC to have a trained nurse dispatched to the hospital.
The center is located next to the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit, but patients are not required to report the assault to law enforcement in order to have the free exam performed.
The Police SVU where the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday Dec. 6, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Founded in 2011 and initially operated by the now-shuttered Hahnemann University Hospital, PSARC has been run since 2019 by Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. For most of that time, the operation ran on a shoestring budget.
Until last year, PSARC received no dedicated city funding. The state reimbursed Drexel about $1,000 for each patient treated, with Drexel absorbing substantial losses, according to records. The exam reimbursements can take months to flow from the state.
Brian Keech, then Drexel’s senior vice president for government relations, shared a financial analysis with city officials last year that laid out an annual shortfall averaging more than $175,000.
As Drexel cut staff and benefits across the university last year amid declining enrollment and a $63 million annual operating loss, its leaders told the Parker administration that the school could no longer manage PSARC on its own.
In a series of emails last spring, Keech pressed the city for a funding commitment for the center and warned that, without one, the university would have to tell hospitals to stop referring patients for sexual assault exams.
“We’ve begun to prepare the closure announcement,” Keech wrote in a May 20, 2025, email to Adam Geer, the city’s chief public safety director. “Obviously we’re hopeful we can avoid this scenario, but we do have to adequately prepare area hospitals that they will have to begin providing sexual assault services come July 1 if PSARC closes.”
By early June, the city had found the money.
The scramble to save PSARC
Yates-Gale, the city’s deputy managing director, said in a June 2025 email to Drexel officials that the administration had identified $250,000 in emergency funding to keep the center running.
The plan was for WOAR — the nonprofit formerly known as Women Organized Against Rape — to operate PSARC. The city would support its efforts by routing those funds to WOAR through an existing health department contract.
Meanwhile, WOAR was itself under severe financial strain amid the state budget impasse that left community organizations across Pennsylvania unfunded. WOAR’s leaders told city officials that they could not make payroll without the check from the city.
PSARC was left in limbo. The handoff deadline from Drexel to WOAR was moved from Aug. 1 to Sept. 1, with Drexel agreeing to cover an extra month of payroll to bridge the gap. Then, on Aug. 28 — three days before the already delayed transfer — WOAR’s board chair, Joanne Strauss, wrote in an email to city officials that the organization “will not be acquiring” PSARC.
She provided no reason other than saying the organization was “further evaluating the proposed transaction.”
City officials were alarmed. Within an hour, the city’s victim advocate, Adara Combs, emailed Drexel officials to say she was “deeply troubled” by the sudden shift.
Two weeks later, WOAR appeared ready to operate the center again. The group’s board of directors voted unanimously to approve the acquisition, and money from the city began flowing to WOAR to operate the rape exam center — more than $80,000 in total.
Anthony, of WOAR, said in a statement the board’s approval of the acquisition of the sexual assault center came as the nonprofit thought the state budget impasse would come to an end and was “contingent on conditions related to funding and our ability to responsibly take control of PSARC.”
“It became clear that those conditions were not resolved,” she said.
Drexel continued to pay to operate the rape crisis center, and WOAR wired the university the city funding it had received. Drexel operated PSARC, with an additional $167,000 in help from the city, until June 30.
The 15th Street entrance to Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions Feb. 19, 2020. The college has the largest bachelor program in the three-state region.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
The back-and-forth saga highlighted a central question: Why did the city seek to transfer a critical service to WOAR despite the nonprofit’s existing financial problems?
Slovak, of the Women’s Law Project, said it made sense that WOAR stepped up to take over the center’s operations, given its mission to treat and prevent sexual violence. It is common in other cities for rape crisis centers to manage forensic exam facilities.
But overseeing hundreds of sexual assault exams each year, she said, would have been a major expansion of WOAR’s scope because it “is about more than just providing emotional support or accompaniment for survivors.”
Yates-Gale said WOAR was a natural choice to assume operations of the center. The group had an existing contract with the city and its mission aligned with that of PSARC.
“Drexel agreed to continue operations until another suitable alternative organization could be identified,” she said, “and the entirety of the funds for the program were transferred back to them.”
Britt Faulstick, a Drexel University spokesperson, said the school “worked closely with city leadership to ensure a smooth transition.”
Another failed effort to find an operator
The city’s $250,000 in emergency funding bought PSARC time. But the same question remained: Who would run it long-term, and where would they find the money?
This spring, Parker’s budget proposal, which was approved by City Council in June, included $300,000 for the center. The city put the operation out for bid, seeking an outside organization like another hospital or nonprofit to run it.
City officials met on April 13 with potential operators, including representatives from area hospitals that depend on the center, such as Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia. Several expressed concerns about PSARC’s finances.
According to a public recording of the meeting, multiple attendees suggested that $300,000 a year in city funding would not be enough to cover PSARC’s operations and salaries for medical staff who must be available 24-7.
The exam room and desk space when patients are in at the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, in Philadelphia, Pa., on Friday Dec. 6, 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“This has never been something that’s been profitable, so it’s always needed another source of funds to keep it stable,” one hospital representative said. “It’s the money, right, to keep it open and to be able to run this as a service for the city and keep it maintained so you’re not back in this ‘we don’t have it’ in six months.”
Combs, the city’s victim advocate, told potential bidders that they were welcome to “reimagine” how PSARC operates and propose new funding streams.
But hospital representatives remained skeptical and pressed the city to find a different solution, citing a moral urgency.
“It would be a tremendous tragedy if we lost the resources of PSARC in the city,” said a representative from Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital.
“I think we all agree,” said Azucena Ugarte, director of the Philadelphia Office of Domestic Violence Strategies. “That’s why we’re doing this.”
But following the meeting, no one bid.
The city takes over
With no outside bid to operate Philadelphia’s only free rape exam center, the options in front of city officials were either to let it close or to take control themselves.
The city chose the latter. Parker administration officials framed it as a lasting solution.
Faulstick, of Drexel, said the school will continue to train nurses in sexual assault examination to help ensure the care is available. He said PSARC is “positioned for continued growth and long-term sustainability.”
Others have questions about the stabilization plan.
City Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who represents the city at-large and held a hearing earlier this year about PSARC funding, said that the $300,000 annual allocation to the center is likely inadequate and that she will push for more dollars in future city budgets.
Councilmember Nina Ahmad in chambers as City Council meets Dec. 11, 2025.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Ahmad also said she expected more buy-in from hospitals, noting they would have been saddled with the responsibility of providing sexual assault exams if PSARC had shuttered.
“I am not surprised,” she said in an interview, “but I’m still disgusted that we have not come together on this. … This is evidence being collected, [and] this is how we prevent future rapes.”
Slovak said ensuring PSARC’s financial survival will take more than a change in management. It will require cooperation, including from hospitals, the city, and the state, to work together “so that survivors aren’t sacrificed in the budget gamesmanship.”
Still, she said, the city “can really be this positive, central, coordinating force.”
“And I do feel confident at this point,” Slovak added, that the center “is going to move in a good direction from here.”
Police found a man engulfed in flames along Kensington Avenue Friday morning in what fire department officials called a “non-suspicious” fire.
Police responded to the 3400 block of Kensington Avenue Friday morning for a report of a screaming person. Upon arrival, a person passing by said a 34-year-old man was found on the ground engulfed in flames.
Philadelphia Fire Department medics responded to the scene and transported the man to Temple University Hospital, where he was placed in critical but stable condition.
The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation by the East Detective Division, but the Fire Marshal’s Office ruled the fire to be “non-suspicious.”
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the East Detective Division or submit an anonymous tip through the Philadelphia Police Department’s tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
Breaking concrete, beeping trucks, and the hum of heavy machinery signaled movement Wednesday in the monthlong investigation into two missing persons last seen at a house on the 400 block of West Chew Avenue in Olney.
With that cacophony of construction sounds, the Philadelphia Police Department and the FBI began a planned excavation at the home of Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, who faces charges of carrying illegal firearms and fake federal law enforcement credentials following a June arrest. Horsch’s dilapidated twin home on West Chew Avenue has since been connected to the disappearances of at least two women in the last 10 years.
Authorities said they would excavate a portion of Horsch’s property with assistance from the Philadelphia Water Department. Investigators, officials said, were intent on unearthing and examining a pipe under the house as part of a widening probe.
Workers and police investigators dig and inspect a hole while removing pipes and debris at the entrance to the home of Eugene Albert Horsch on West Chew Avenue.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
“The general scope of the dig is to excavate and remove a pipe that will be subsequently examined by FBI and PPD forensics for any evidence that may be present,” Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police department spokesperson, said Monday.
That effort began in earnest before 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, with crews digging up what was once a small, overgrown garden in front of Horsch’s home, as well as the sidewalk and street in front of the property. Trucks and tents cropped up throughout the morning as investigators walked the block. Periodically, investigators inserted a white pole into the earth, measuring the depth of a hole.
Later in the morning, workers pulled a piece of pipe from the ground and took it inside the home.
Wednesday’s excavation was the latest development the case that began June 19, when Horsch was arrested near Independence Mall with drugs, guns, and other weapons, as well as a counterfeit U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration badge. A woman was with him at the time, and she was carrying a fake ID in the name of Blair Tonzelli, who was last seen at Horsch’s home in 2022.
Workers and police investigators dig and inspect a hole while removing pipes and debris at the entrance to the home of Eugene Albert Horsch.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Since then, investigators have discovered a swath of evidence, authorities have said. Among the items found at the West Chew Avenue home were vats of chemicals, a 55-gallon drum with connections to water lines in the house’s basement, and what police sources called “a significant amount” of blood.
Forensic testing is continuing, and it has not yet been announced whether the blood is human. Horsch does not currently face charges involving violent crimes.
Additionally, authorities have found other fake IDs in Tonzelli’s name, as well as the missing woman’s bank card. Investigators have also said that Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Horsch’s late father, Raymond Horsch, was last seen at the Olney home in 2016, according to the woman’s family.
It was unclear Wednesday if investigators had linked any evidence to the disappearances of Tonzelli or McHale.
Workers and police investigators dig and inspect a hole while removing pipes and debris at the entrance to the home of Eugene Albert Horsch on Wednesday.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The midweek excavation surprised some neighborhood residents. Cheri Smith lives two blocks from the site of the investigation, but still felt its effects. Smith, who has lived nearby for two decades, said she has felt unsettled since news of the investigation broke last month, and has seen little communication among police, the city, and neighbors.
“It’s a shame what happened,” Smith said. “It would be nice if they notified us that this work is going to be happening, but the city is going to do what they are going to do.”
Laurenza Moise said that when she arrived Wednesday to open her braiding business, the corner of Fifth Street and Chew Avenue had already been blocked off. Since the investigation began, she said, she has seen a reduction in business.
“When they close the street, my business goes down, and there’s no parking for customers,” Moise said. “What can I do other than mind my business?”
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is investigating ties between one of DA Larry Krasner’s top advisers and a man serving life in prison after prosecutors learned that the official sent the man money years ago and did not disclose it.
G. Lamar Stewart, chief of external engagement and government affairs in the DA’s office, said he sent $100 to Anthony Sutton in January 2021 to support Sutton’s mentorship program, “Mann Up,” for men incarcerated at State Correctional Institute Phoenix.
Sutton, 61, who is serving life in prison for killing a man in Germantown in 1984, has been appealing his conviction for more than a decade.
The issue came to light last week, after the prosecutors assigned to Sutton’s appeal were reviewing his prison records and noticed that Stewart was among those who had sent Sutton money in recent years.
The records showed Stewart did so only once, Krasner said.
The payment raised concerns, in part because Stewart had organized and participated in meetings between Sutton’s defense attorney, Krasner, and prosecutors about the case, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Krasner’s office has opposed Sutton’s appeal and said his profession of innocence lacked merit.
When the prosecutors discovered the payment, it was quickly brought to the attention of Krasner, who then asked his office’s special investigation unit to investigate, according to multiple sources familiar with the case. The inquiry remains ongoing.
Stewart, who is also senior pastor of Taylor Memorial Baptist Church in Nicetown-Tioga, was working as the head of the office’s community engagement unit at the time of the donation. In an interview, he said he used his own money to support Sutton’s program as part of the faith-based charitable work he does to assist families and community organizations across the region every holiday season.
“I thought that the work that they were doing was positive, transformative, and it was geared to helping reduce violence in Philadelphia and to make communities and families whole,” he said.
He said he did not know of any way to reach the organization other than to send it through Sutton directly. “I was very intentional to make sure that my name was listed because when you’re not trying to hide anything, you just do things above the board,” he said.
District Attorney Larry Krasner (left) and G Lamar Stewart, head of the Community Engagement and Government Affairs at the DA’s Office, outside the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park in February 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
During a brief hearing in Sutton’s case on Monday, Assistant District Attorney David Napiorski, supervisor of the office’s law division, told Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni O. Campbell that his attorneys needed additional time to investigate Sutton’s case after they found that someone in the office had put “money on the defendant’s books in prison.”
“That needs to be investigated by the office thoroughly before we can take any further action,” Napiorski told the judge.
Stewart said he did not try to influence the outcome of the appeal or advocate for Sutton. He acknowledged that he attended at least one meeting about Sutton’s case, but said his job requires him to coordinate and attend meetings with Krasner.
Krasner said that he saw no issue with Stewart’s donation or subsequent participation in meetings, and that his office’s inquiry and prosecutors’ comment in court Monday “establishes integrity.”
“G. Lamar Stewart gave a small amount of money for an organization … and then this office decided to oppose Mr. Sutton’s request. Where’s the issue?” he asked.
He added: “Any rock we haven’t flipped yet, we will flip. Preliminarily, it seems quite clear that this was a donation given for a completely legitimate purpose.”
Sutton did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through a messaging app for people in prison. His attorney, Jason Javie, said Tuesday that he did not know anything about Stewart’s payment to Sutton and declined to discuss the matter further.
“My focus is 110% on the exoneration of Mr. Sutton,” he said.
The revelation comes amid mounting scrutiny over Krasner’s office’s handling of post-conviction matters. In a forceful ruling last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Krasner’s office had a pattern of misleading judges when seeking to overturn old murder convictions.
Last week, in a separate, controversial federal appellate case, a former assistant district attorney in Krasner’s office said prosecutors were “colluding” with defense attorneys to find the most effective way to have the murder conviction thrown out. And then, on Monday, in a striking court filing in that same contentious case, two supervisors in the law division said Krasner had instructed them to litigate the matter in a way that would “protect the office.”
And now, the office is investigating a case connected to Stewart, who has worked in the DA’s office since 2019 and is one of Krasner’s most trusted advisers.
District Attorney Larry Krasner at a press conference in May, denouncing criticism of his office leveled by Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Stewart, who is paid $154,500 annually, oversees the office’s community engagement, public affairs, and communications strategies, and acts as a conduit between Krasner and other public officials. Since Robert Listenbee retired as first assistant district attorney in January, Krasner has not named a successor — and several prosecutors say Stewart, who is not a lawyer, has effectively absorbed parts of that job. He often helps coordinate sensitive matters in cases, including relocating victims and witnesses.
He is respected by many in city government and across the community. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, speaking at Krasner’s inauguration ceremony in January, mentioned Stewart as one of the office’s most essential staffers.
“District Attorney Krasner, as a moment of personal privilege, I want you to know that G. Lamar Stewart is one of the most committed, committed, committed members of your team in engaging in community outreach, and he represents you well, sir,” she said to applause.
Stewart, born and raised in Germantown and North Philadelphia, served in the U.S. Army and worked for the Philadelphia Police Department before joining Krasner’s team in 2019. At his church, he runs a nonprofit called Taylor Made Opportunities that offers job support and mentorship to young men in the neighborhood, and supports families of homicide victims.
Stewart said he donates to community organizations, and provides meals, Christmas gifts, and other means of support to crime victims’ families each year, using his personal money.
He does not typically disclose those donations to the DA’s office, he said, and it has never been a problem.
“My Christian faith is rooted in giving, in love, in showing up for the least of these, showing up for those who have been harmed, for showing up for those who are trying to rehabilitate and be accountable for the harm they caused to bring healing to our community,” he said. “For anyone to suggest that me giving through a faith lens, in the interest of good for community, is problematic for me, that is an infringement upon my faith tradition and my religious rights.”
Krasner said he did not think it was necessary for Stewart — or other employees in the office — to disclose donations.
“I don’t know that it makes sense to require 700 employees, especially if they’re doing so on a faith basis, to disclose everyone they give donations to,” he said. “It’s certainly something we could think about.”
In Stewart’s case, his money went to support a program run by Sutton, better known as Benny Doo, who was sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Richard Berry in the Pelham section of Germantown in December 1984. In the early 1980s, prosecutors said, Berry hired Sutton and other members of his crew, called the “Ghostbusters,” to retrieve jewelry that had been stolen from him, and agreed to pay with “a few ounces of blow and a couple thousand dollars.”
Berry never paid up, and after he started avoiding Sutton and his crew, Sutton killed him, prosecutors said.
But Sutton said prosecutors violated his right to a fair trial when they failed to turn over police documents — including polygraph results and police interviews with several witnesses — to his defense attorney. One man who testified at trial has also since come forward to recant his testimony.
Prosecutors, in a court filing in May, said Sutton failed to show how those issues could have changed the outcome of his trial. His appeal, prosecutors wrote, was untimely and lacked merit.
A 15-year-old boy was struck and killed by a CSX freight train late Monday night in Northeast Philadelphia.
Abdusalom Babaev, who was identified by police Tuesday evening, had been reported missing on Sunday from his home in the city’s Bustleton section.
Babaev was walking south along the railroad tracks near the 1500 block of Grant Avenue near his home when he was hit at 11:19 p.m., according to CSX. No crew onboard the train were injured.
The Philadelphia Police Department responded to the area at 11:30 p.m. for a report of a train striking a pedestrian. Officers’ initial investigation indicated that a CSX train, operated by a 55-year-old man, was traveling north at a “normal operating speed” under dark conditions and limited visibility when the conductor saw Babaev walking along the tracks.
According to police, the conductor immediately initiated emergency braking in an attempt to avoid crashing into the boy, but was unable to stop the train in time.
Babaev was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:44 p.m. by the Philadelphia Fire Department. His body was transported to the city Medical Examiner’s Office for further investigation.
“CSX extends its deepest sympathies to everyone impacted by this tragic incident and will support local law enforcement as they complete the investigation,” a CSX spokesperson said.
Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.
A four-foot plastic traffic barrier was placed in the bike lanes on 18th and Spruce Streets on Sunday. Painted white and adorned with 12 sunflowers, the small protective barrier would not only protect cyclists from cars, but represent the people killed by drivers since the death of Barbara Friedes, a pediatric doctor who, in 2024, was killed where the painted barrier was placed while riding her bike home from work.
But just hours after hundreds of people, including City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, helped install the barrier during a memorial for Friedes, it was removed, said Jessie Amadio, an organizer for Philly Bike Action, which organized the memorial.
The swift removal led the group to suspect city crews may have removed it, sparking an outcry from supporters who contacted city departments and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
“It takes years to protect a bike lane but hours to remove bike lane protection?” Philly Bike Action wrote on Instagram. “Drained and removed on a Sunday like it was the most pressing business in the entire City today.”
The city has said it was not aware of any removal efforts on its part.
Later Sunday, Philly Bike Action members found the memorial barrier tucked behind a dumpster in the alleyway behind Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel, mere feet away from where it was placed. The city contends crews would have taken it to a sanitation facility or other waste removal site.
Hanna Kahler hands out sunflowers as family, friends, and Philly Bike action members arrive at Barbara’s Angel Bike at 18th and Spruce for a memorial Sunday. Barbara Friedes, a 30-year-old Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia doctor, was killed on her bike on the spot by a drunk driver in July 2024.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The city’sManaging Director’s Office said it was unaware of any city employee taking part in the memorial barrier’s removal.
“We just need more time to ask every single person who might have been out there, but everybody who has been asked at this point who worked in that area on Sunday did not remove them,” a spokesperson said.
The office has been investigating since Sundayafternoon, checking with the Philadelphia Police Department, the Fire Department, the Streets Department, and the Department of Sanitation as to whether one of their crews removed it. The spokesperson said that no city department issued an order for employees to remove the barrier.
The Police Departmentreported back that it did not have nearby surveillance footage showing the area where the barrier was placed to identify who may have removed it. Police canvassed the area Monday to gather additional information and doorbell surveillance footage, a spokesperson said.
City Council President Kenyatta Johnson speaks as friends, family, and Philly Bike Action members gather at the angel bike for Barbara Friedes at 18th and Spruce for a memorial Sunday. Friedes, a 30-year-old Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia doctor, was killed on her bike at the intersection by a drunk driver in July 2024. Johnson pledged he would remain committed to finding ways to protect cyclists in Philadelphia.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
In Philadelphia, the majority of people killed in vehicle crashes are pedestrians and cyclists, according to recent PennDot data. While overall crashes have declined since 2020, the number of drivers crashing into non-motorists has stayed the same or increased.
Following the deaths of Friedes and other cyclists and pedestrians, the city pledged $4.8 million to install permanent concrete bike lane barriers along Spruce and Pine Streets in Center City. Part of this plan was to convert parking spaces along these streets into loading zones intended to give vehicles a place to briefly stop instead of in bike lanes. However, the neighborhood group Friends of Pine and Spruce sued on the grounds that the city had no legal authority to remove parking spaces to create “neighborhood loading zones.”
A car is parked in the bicycle lane in the 1700 Block of Spruce Street on Sunday even as family, friends, and Philly Bike Action members gather at Barbara Friedes’ Angel Bike at 18th and Spruce for a memorial. Friedes, a 30-year-old Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia doctor, was killed on her bike at the intersection by a drunk driver in July 2024.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The city has since delayed the Spruce and Pine Streets safety project due to a 2025court injunction. Common Pleas Judge Damaris L. Garcia recently denied the city’s motion to dissolve the injunction, and the project remains on pause.
While Philly Bike Action recognizes the need for the city to wait on legal proceedings, the group believes the judge’s order should still allow the construction of barriers as the injunction targets “ongoing construction” and efforts associated with proposed “neighborhood loading zones, or related restrictions on Pine and Spruce Streets.” However, the addition of “related restrictions” introduced ambiguity and has kept the city’s plans stalled.
“We can’t wait another two to five years,” Amadio said. “The barrier is not much bigger than the curbs on the end of the road and will prevent cars from merging into the bike lane and hurting people.”
Police officers in one of Philadelphia’s largest districts frequently failed to activate their body-worn cameras during encounters that department policy required them to record, according to a new audit by the Citizens Police Oversight Commission.
The commission’s review of a random sample of 125 police incidents in North Philadelphia’s 22nd District found that officers recorded only 23 of 83 encounters that required camera footage.
The findings, released Wednesday, mark the final report in a series of audits examining body-worn camera compliance in four police districts across Philadelphia. Of the districts reviewed, the 22nd had the lowest rate of required recordings, raising concerns about whether one of the department’s primary accountability tools is being used consistently in the field, the commission said.
Janine Zajac, the commission’s director of auditing, policy, and research, said body-worn cameras are intended to provide accountability for both officers and the public. “It feels concerning when a really important tool for accountability isn’t being used,” she said.
The 22nd District, which spans neighborhoods includingYorktown, Strawberry Mansion, and Brewerytown, was selected alongside the 24th, 18th, and 15th Districts as part of an audit series designed to examine camera use across different parts of the city. The districts were chosen for their geographic diversity, activity levels, and the volume of complaints the commission receives from residents, Zajac said.
The audits looked at several measures of compliance with the department’s policy, including whether officers activated cameras when required, whether all officers on a scene recorded, and whether footage captured the full encounter.
Performance varied across the districts, said Michael Tooley Jr., a senior analyst for the commission. But the 22nd District stood out, he said: Officers recorded only 28% of incidents requiring footage, compared with 62% in the 18th District and 73% in the 15th District, and 88% of vehicle stops in the 24th District.
The commission reviewed incidents from April and June 2025 in the 22nd District, while the other audits examined a single month. Tooley said the commission expanded its review in the 22nd District because so few camera recordings were available from the first month requested.
The missed recordings occurred most often during investigations of premises — a category that includes domestic incidents, minor disturbances, and weapons-related calls — the review found, while vehicle stops and safety checks made up the second-largest share of incidents with absent videos.
The audit found that once officers turned their cameras on, they generally followed department procedures. Of the recordings reviewed, 91% captured the full duration of the encounter, 88% showed proper activation from standby mode, and 97% were correctly labeled and categorized.
Sgt. Eric Gripp said, a police spokesperson, the department takes the findings seriously. “Any instance in which an officer fails to activate a body-worn camera when required is inconsistent with department policy and our expectations,” he said.
Gripp noted that the 22nd District is one of the city’s busiest police districts, generating tens of thousands of body-worn camera recordings each year as officers respond to a high volume of calls and other interactions. While “that workload does not lessen our expectations for policy compliance,” he said, “it does highlight the scale of the body-worn camera program” and the demands placed on officers in the district.
City Councilmember Jeffrey Young, whose district includes much of the area served by the 22nd District, said the audit’s findings underscore the importance of adhering to body-worn camera policies, which “exist to protect everyone involved.”
He added: “I have confidence in [the department’s] ability to address these findings with transparency and professionalism.”
The audits of other districts revealed different weaknesses. In the 24th District, the commission found that nearly four in 10 videos failed to capture the entire traffic stop and that backup officers frequently did not record. In the 15th District, auditors found that officers often powered cameras completely off instead of leaving them in standby mode.
The 18th District in West Philadelphia posted some of the strongest results, with 98% standby-mode compliance and no video-labeling errors.
Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired sergeant with the New York City Police Department, said officers often arrive at chaotic scenes where remembering to activate a body-worn camera might not be their first instinct.
“It’s just not a natural thing,” he said.
But he also said departments must find ways to make camera activation routine because the footage can benefit both officers and the public. “Those videos provide better insight into what the police actually do — and most of the time, they’re right when they’re doing it,” he said.
Paula Sen, who coleads the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s police accountability unit and has conducted reviews of officers’ body-worn camera usage, said the footage is equally important for defendants and defense attorneys.
“Every attorney in this office watches hundreds to thousands of body-worn cameras each year,” Sen said. The recordings provide objective evidence that can contradict an officer’s account of an incident, she said, and help defense attorneys successfully challenge evidence in court.
Zajac said police department officials were receptive when the commission shared its findings and recommendations in May, with district leaders expressing interest in better understanding what might be preventing officers from properly using the cameras.
Gripp said the department continues to reinforce its body-worn camera policy through roll-call reminders, additional training, and supervisory oversight. Supervisors are expected to review footage, reinforce compliance, and address deficiencies when they are identified, he said.
Since launching its body-worn cameras more than a decade ago, Gripp said, the department has recorded millions of interactions. “Like any large-scale accountability program, our responsibility is to continually evaluate performance, identify opportunities for improvement, and strengthen compliance,” he said.
Clarification: A quote about the number of body-worn cameras viewed by the Defender Association of Philadelphia has been updated.
About a year before police raided a crumbling Olney twin in connection to a missing woman last month, Philadelphia narcotics officers scoured Eugene Horsch’s basement and found telltale signs of a drug dealer.
Firefighters had responded to a small blaze on the second floor of the property on May 18, 2025, alerting police to what they said was a sprawling marijuana grow operation. And when narcotics cops searched the home later that morning, court records show they recovered a modified fully automatic assault rifle with an obliterated serial number, a sawed-off shotgun, a pistol, and ammunition.
The top floor was filled with cannabis plants, tents, and UV lights, with exposed wires running between the floors and into the basement, where vats of chemicals were stored, apparently to “cultivate marijuana,” the records said.
The police report detailing the drug bust at the Olney house made no mention of missing women, despite the fact that concerned relatives and friends had told police years earlier that at least two women who stayed at the house had vanished.
Now, the disappearance of one of those women, Blair Tonzelli, is central to an ongoing search at the property, where police found fake IDs and bank cards in her name, among other disturbing evidence.
That law enforcement did not appear to connect the missing women to the search for drugs at the same address raises questions about whether the officers who searched the property last summer were aware of the two missing persons cases. The Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police began reexamining Tonzelli’s disappearance on June 19 after arresting Horsch, whose companion had a fake ID in her name. Investigators reinterviewed witnesses and viewed footage of a statement given in February 2023 by Tonzelli’s friend, who told officers Tonzelli was last seen at 417 W. Chew Ave. Police have also revisited the 2016 disappearance of Amy McHale — the ex-wife of Horsch’s father, erotic filmmaker Raymond C. Horsch — whose mother said she vanished from the Olney home.
Gloria McHale, Amy’s mother, said she was surprised to learn that police had searched the property for drugs in 2025.
“I wish they would have looked deeper,” she said.
Police have not charged Horsch with any crimes linked to missing women. He has been jailed since his arrest last month on $500,000 bail for gun and drug charges, as federal and local police prepare to excavate the property in search of more evidence.
His attorney, Jerome Brown, declined comment. Brown has previously said police had interviewed Raymond Horsch several times over the years about McHale’s disappearance.
When local and federal law enforcement officers searched Horsch’s home last month in connection to the missing women, police said they again found guns, ammo, and drugs. More troubling, according to police records, is that they also found a “significant amount” of blood, a handwritten letter referencing serial killer Ted Bundy, and fake IDs and bank cards in Tonzelli’s name.
The latest search began after police arrested Horsch in his black BMW with an array of weapons, drugs, and a woman donning a fake ID in Tonzelli’s name. A sworn affidavit to initiate the search includes witness testimony that suggested Horsch was a “sociopath” who knew how to dispose of human remains.
But it was a fire that brought police to Horsch’s property one morning in May 2025.
Eugene had been living in the twin with two other women, including his father’s longtime companion, Krista M. Killen. City firefighters said the small blaze was started by “careless smoking” on the second floor, according to Horsch’s arrest report. While extinguishing the fire, a fire marshal and police patrolman on the scene discovered a “marijuana grow operation” on the home’s third floor and basement.
Officers with the PPD Narcotics Strike Force later searched the home and seized 26 pounds of marijuana, 131 grams of dried mushrooms, $1,200 worth of methamphetamine, $800 cash, and “numerous gold colored and silver” coins in a safe, records show.
Police also recovered a BCI Defense AR-15 style rifle modified to be fully automatic, a 12-gauge Stevens Model 67 pump-action shotgun with a sawed-off barrel, a 9mm Girsan MC28 pistol and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. The serial numbers had been destroyed on all three firearms, according to records.
Horsch had previous felony convictions for drug manufacturing charges and was not legally allowed to own firearms. He was arrested and held on $750,000 bail for manufacturing drugs, illegal gun possession, and related crimes.
Brown, the family attorney, told a judge that the weapons belonged to Horsch’s father, who had died just three days before the drug raid. Brown said Eugene Horsch was planning to properly dispose of the firearms, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner.
His health became a factor in determining an appropriate resolution to the case. Sources familiar with the case, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the details publicly, said Horsch appeared frail at the time of his 2025 arrest and could barely walk into court.
Horsch pled guilty to manufacturing drugs, and prosecutors withdrew the additional gun charges. He received three years probation.
Within months of his release from jail, Horsch would be locked up again.
In March, police arrested Horsch and charged him with stabbing a man at Eighth and Market Streets. Prosecutors dropped the charges after a witness failed to appear in court, records show, and he was released from lockup in May.
Three weeks later, U.S. Park Police stopped him in his car near Independence Mall, where they recovered a fake ID in Tonzelli’s name.
The search of the Olney property continued Wednesday.
Attorney General Dave Sunday has spent 18 months as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, overseeing a sprawling office that handles criminal prosecution, civil litigation, consumer protection services, civil rights enforcement, and more.
In that time, the 51-year-old Republican and Harrisburg native says, he has taken on issues ranging from the opioid crisis to illegal crime guns. And last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed his office broad authority to review the efforts of Philadelphia prosecutors to overturn murder convictions they have called unjust, a signature initiative of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.
In a recent interviewat his Philadelphia office, Sunday talked about that and more.
What is your reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on the work of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit?
Obviously, it’s an unprecedented ruling.
Oftentimes, the best outcome is through the adversarial process. We work with the Philly DA’s office in a lot of different areas, and I viewed this ruling as any other that provides me with instructions on a way on which I have to run my office.
Moving forward, the ruling requires your office to review any post-conviction concession that Krasner’s office aims to pursue. How will that work?
There are questions. How many times will we have to intervene? What will that do to staffing? Will we have the logistics and resources to do it appropriately? I think that process will unfold over the next month or so.
There’s no other real comparison for this ruling, and so what I can say very simply is this: It is absolutely crucial that there is a voice for the families of victims, and at the same time, I think it’s crucial to make sure that we protect the rights of individuals who are charged with crimes and convicted of crimes.
That balance is found in applying the law and the facts to the issue. That’s something we will enthusiastically do.
.Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Since Krasner first took office, his prosecutors have supported efforts to overturn around 115 convictions. Given the Supreme Court’s findings, do you now question whether some of those overturned convictions should be reconsidered?
Well, we have to look at the legal process there. For individuals who the court has already ruled in a manner in which they’re out of prison, those cases are done.
But with cases that are still going through the appellate process, individuals that are incarcerated, those are situations where we’re going to have to take a look at it. I mean, this is very serious, and when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in this manner — not just the ruling itself, but the verbiage — I, as attorney general, take that extremely seriously.
We will do our job, and we’ll do our duty, and we’ll review it, but it’s also important to understand that this isn’t a quest to prove someone wrong. It’s a quest to ensure that all parties are zealously advocated for.
Krasner has strongly opposed the ruling. He’s likened this issue to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement and said that the decision undermines the votes of those who elected him to office. What is your response to that?
I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do.
It’s critical that the citizenry knows and understands that their case will be dealt with by applying the facts to the law — and I know that’s not the most exciting answer, but there are things that are in my control and there are things that aren’t in my control, and his reaction to anything is completely out of my control.
The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.
Earlier this year, justices ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for those convicted of second-degree murder are unconstitutional. What are your thoughts on that?
Third-degree murder, second-degree murder, those are cases where the acts resulting in the crime are vastly different case to case. As a prosecutor, I’ve tried horrific second-degree murder cases — one was an in-home burglary where an individual was left face down on the ground, duct-taped, and they ultimately died from positional asphyxiation, which really is torture.
At the same time, there are second-degree murder cases where you have multiple codefendants, and — this case is highlighted a lot — one of the codefendants pulls a gun out, kills an individual, and all those codefendants, because they were acting in concert and furthering some conspiracy, they’re all guilty of second-degree murder and they’re in for life.
So there are second-degree murder cases where the individuals should have an opportunity for parole, and at the same time, there are cases that are absolutely horrific, where individuals should spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The important place we’re in now is the legislative process, moving forward to ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the harm caused in the crime.
Violent crime has fallen dramatically from its pandemic-era highs in Philadelphia and across the state. Should the attorney general’s office get some credit for that?
There is no one individual or agency that can take credit for these outcomes. We’re with our federal partners, we work with everybody.
After I was elected, some of the very first calls I made were to the Philadelphia mayor and the police commissioner, and I made it very clear that we’re partners. I’m excited, let’s go. And that’s what we’ve done.
The Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force is a huge part. We do everything we can every day to go after gun traffickers, illegal straw purchasers. We’ve removed more than 500 crime guns off the streets [statewide] in 2025.
In addition to that, our Bureau of Narcotics works every day in Philadelphia. Last year, we removed 56 million doses of fentanyl from the streets, and a large portion of that was in the city.
The Commonwealth Court struck down a decades-old law that banned Pennsylvanians from using their Medicaid benefits to pay for abortions, and last month, your office appealed. Why?
A lot of people don’t understand the role of the AG in a lot of issues. In Pennsylvania, we have the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the rules that dictate the job, and one of the rules in there is that the attorney general shall defend the constitutionality of statutes in Pennsylvania.
I have irritated the entire political spectrum, because I am defending statutes whether you like them or not. That’s literally my job. What a lot of people don’t understand is that the [Medicaid] law is part of the Abortion Control Act — the same law that allows abortions to occur up to six months of pregnancy, the very same law.
In that law is a subsection that also says that government funds cannot be used for abortions — so I’m defending the abortion law in Pennsylvania, just like I would any other section of that law.
Critics say that by appealing the ruling and prolonging this issue, you are denying Pennsylvanians of what the court called a “fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.” How do you respond?
Just like every law we defend — every single one — there are people that like it and don’t like it, and they will have commentary. I certainly respect their absolute right to have that commentary.
What I will say is, this decision has nothing to do with that. It is the job of the attorney general to defend the statute.
.Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
What would you say has set your tenure apart from your predecessor, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and his appointed successor, Michelle Henry?
Very simply, I came into this job as a prosecutor. I ran on public safety. I wasn’t a legislator, so when I look at the office, I view it as a place where you follow the facts in the law, and you fight hard to keep people safe.
With that being said, I have hyper-focused on issues impacting citizens. We have huge crises in Pennsylvania that need to be addressed, specifically the mental health crisis.
When I came into office, I saw our prisons are full of people that have mental and behavioral health challenges. Individuals go to jail solely because they have a mental health crisis, and what I want to see are people getting treatment.
What we did was create a new initiative that gives police a toolbox, so when they come into contact with someone in a mental health crisis [who is committing a low-level criminal offense], they can get that person into treatment [if the person chooses to do so]. At the same time, that person can be charged, and the police have the flexibility to hold that charge.
This is brand-new, and we have nine counties that are already signed up and are rolling. We have five more lined up and ready to roll over the next few months.
President Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and he was joined by some of the state’s other top Republican officials, such as Stacy Garrity. Is that an event you would have liked to attend?
In all candor, I have events that have been scheduled for months and months, and the reality is, a lot of these [presidential] events pop up pretty quickly.
On Tuesday, I had an event with the first elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, LeRoy Zimmerman. I was with him at a fireside chat, talking about what the AG’s office has looked like, and how it’s changed over the last 30 years.
