The Fraternal Order of Police is burned up over a local firefighter’s saying he wanted to “turn pigs into bacon bits” in the lyrics of a rap song he wrote. So, in this post-Imus age, when the police union did not get the apology it was expecting yesterday, it called for the immediate firing of Rodney Jean-Jacques, 30, who moonlights as rapper Cal Akbar. Jean-Jacques remains on the payroll at Engine Company 9 in Mount Airy. The matter is under investigation, according to Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and a spokesman for Mayor Street. Philadelphia Fire Fighters Union Local 22 […]

IT’S THE GUNS EVEN THOUGH we know more than we did Monday about who was responsible for the horrific carnage at Virginia Tech, the details are still unfolding, and so is the public discussion that tries to find sense or lessons in this tragedy.What we do know: The innocent young people who were slaughtered were not even finished being identified, and their families notified, before gun- rights advocates were broadcasting their specious argument, the same argument they used after the shooting of 10 students in an Amish school in Lancaster just six months ago: Forget controls on gun ownership, this […]

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior [majoring in English], arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., officials said. The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women. ABC, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the note, several pages long, explains Cho’s actions and says, “You caused me to do this.” […]

BY MELISSA DRIBBEN INQUIRER STAFF WRITER “You’ve got to redeem yourselves,” Charles “Wayne” Baldwin used to tell the boys on his after-school football team when they messed up or broke down in tears of frustration. He used the phrase often. Enough that whenever the boys think of their coach, they will hear him saying it. Telling them to stop feeling sorry for themselves, to learn from their mistakes and try again. But the concept of redemption surely has become more complicated, and harder to comprehend, for the children who loved and respected Baldwin. Last Friday, he was killed when a […]

The father of Twanita Johnson’s baby needed a gun, but he can’t buy one because he’s a convict. So Johnson, 21, who had no criminal record, went to a Bucks County gun shop and bought him a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol, according to law enforcement officials.This morning, the recently formed Gun Violence Task Force announced that arrest warrants had been obtained for Johnson and 16 others accused of making illegal “straw” purchases. The task force, a joint effort of city District Attorney Lynne Abraham and state Attorney General Tom Corbett, has opened more than 70 investigations since being launched […]

Two men were shot to death on Philadelphia streets early yesterday, boosting the city homicide total this year to 108 — a rate of more than one killing a day. Both were shot in the head and pronounced dead on the street, police said. Their deaths followed that of a man who died Friday night in West Philadelphia in a place most would presume to be out of the line of fire – in his house. In a second-floor bedroom, Charles W. Baldwin, 42, was struck in the head by a stray bullet from a shoot-out below at 58th and […]

INQUIRER: After hitting 100 homicides, Philadelphia witnessed unrelenting violence over the weekend, with the gruesome discovery of a woman’s body with a plastic bag tied over her head and three men felled by gunfire. Police said no arrests had been made in the homicides, which boost the city total to at least 104, higher than that of some larger cities in the country. Victims of three other unrelated shootings early yesterday were in critical condition last night. “It was a gory night,” said an officer who declined to be named. MORE *PLEASE NOTE: Our recurring GUNCRAZY column, wherein we try […]

BY SIMON WEICHSELBAUM OF THE DAILY NEWS NEW YORK CITY police were crowing this week over the latest murder statistics from the five boroughs. The sprawling metropolis clocked in at 84 homicides — as of Sunday — compared to 117 over the same period last year, a nearly 30 percent drop. Meanwhile, 90 miles south in Philadelphia, the statistics for the same period tell a far grimmer tale. As of last night 97 today 100 people had been murdered here, up 18 percent from this date last year — in a city that is just one-sixth the size of the […]

INQUIRER: Early Thursday morning, a 37-year-old man died of a gunshot wound in the 4600 block of North Penn Street. He was the city’s 97th homicide victim this year. He was found inside a home at 1:19 a.m., and was pronounced dead there less than 20 minutes later, police said. His name was being withheld pending notification of family. No suspects or motives were known to police this morning.

BY DAVE GAMBACORTA OF THE DAILY NEWS Police say it was during this routine stroll that the lives of Leon [Harris, 17], an honor student at Upper Darby High School, and Michael and her brothers intersected. At 9:47 p.m., Michael’s brothers Breon Jones, 15, and Ronald Johnson, 17, jumped out of the SUV and approached Leon. Police say they asked him for cash – he had none – and told him to get into an alley. Frightened for his life, Leon turned and ran. Jones shot him once in the back, police said. Leon fell; the bullet had hit his […]

BY JOSEPH GAMBARDELLO OF THE INQUIRER An 18-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded yesterday afternoon outside a McDonald’s restaurant in West Oak Lane. Detectives were seeking the killer and a motive in the 1:17 p.m. shooting in the 2200 block of Stenton Avenue. The victim, not immediately identified, was taken with a stomach wound to Albert Einstein Medical Center and died at 2:10 p.m.It was the second fatal shooting of the day as the number of homicides in the city grew to 95. At 3:12 a.m., a 29-year-old man was shot multiple times in the chest in the 1300 […]

Cops said the woman had been shot in the back of the head and pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania shortly after 5 p.m. Police weren’t able to release the woman’s name, but a woman at the scene who claimed to be the victim’s aunt identified her as Yvonne Myrich. A 19-year-old was shot in the leg and taken to Mercy Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. A man in his 30s was shot in the chest and taken to HUP, where he was listed in extremely critical condition. A 17-year-old male was shot […]

Philadelphia police last night shot and killed a man who allegedly pointed a handgun at officers after a traffic stop in Kensington.The confrontation — the fifth deadly shooting involving police this year — occurred about 9:30 p.m. near Cambria and Rosehill Streets. Police late last night were poring over the scene and did not divulge many details of what happened. Some witnesses, however, said the shooting occurred after a white Plymouth sedan heading east on Cambria was pulled over just past Rosehill, in front of a brick rowhouse. The driver exited the vehicle with a gun in his hand, they […]