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Author: Jesse Bunch

  • Philadelphia man charged with killing woman who reported him for sexual assault, officials say

    Philadelphia man charged with killing woman who reported him for sexual assault, officials say

    A Philadelphia man was charged with murder after fatally shooting his girlfriend in Levittown this weekend, shortly after she told police he had sexually assaulted her, authorities said.

    Yujun Ren, 32, turned himself in to police in Middletown Township Sunday and told them he had been trying to scare the woman, Yuan Yuan Lu, when the firearm he carried accidentally discharged, killing her.

    Investigators believe otherwise, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Ren’s arrest.

    In addition to murder, prosecutors charged Ren with stalking and a gun crime. He is being held without bail.

    Bristol Township police discovered Lu’s body shortly after noon Sunday in the driver’s seat of a white Hyundai in a residential neighborhood, according to the affidavit.

    Lu had been shot in the head. Police found that the driver’s side window had been struck by gunfire, and they recovered an expended shell casing from a small caliber handgun.

    In Ren’s interview with investigators, he told them that Lu had said “hurtful things and took their cats and dogs,” the affidavit said, leading him to pull the handgun in an attempt to scare her.

    A day earlier, Lu had told Philadelphia police that Ren had sexually assaulted her at his home on South Orianna Street in Pennsport.

    The assault, which Lu said happened around 1 p.m. Saturday, led her to end the relationship and pack her things to leave while Ren was at work, according to the affidavit. Lu told police she was afraid of Ren and said “he had a firearm he carried everywhere,” the document said.

    Ren legally owned a Mossberg MC20 9mm pistol, investigators found.

    The day Ren turned himself in, a woman who told police that she was Ren’s aunt turned that firearm over to Middletown Township authorities, according to the affidavit.

    Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said in a statement that the killing was a “sobering reminder of the lethal nature of domestic violence.”

    “Our investigation revealed a chilling course of conduct,” said Khan, adding that investigators recovered evidence showing Ren stalked Lu in the early morning hours before shooting her.

    Ren is set to appear in district court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.

  • A Michigan man who set fire to a Bensalem house to target his ex’s new boyfriend is sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison

    A Michigan man who set fire to a Bensalem house to target his ex’s new boyfriend is sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison

    A Michigan man who drove across the country to set fire to a Bensalem family’s home in a targeted attack on a romantic rival was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 40 years in prison.

    Harrison Jones, 22, pleaded no contest to six counts of attempted murder and two counts of animal cruelty for the killing of the family’s two dogs, which perished in the blaze. He also pleaded guilty to a slew of related crimes in connection with the February 2025 incident.

    Bucks County prosecutors said Jones drove more than 700 miles from his native Rockford, Mich., that winter to set the blaze at the home of Alex Zalenski, a man Jones’ ex-girlfriend and high school sweetheart had recently begun a long-distance relationship with.

    Zalenski, along with his father, mother, sister, and grandparents, was sleeping when Jones broke in and set off an incendiary device in the living room and kitchen around 5 a.m. Their dogs, Jett and Trey, barked, waking up the family, who all managed to escape.

    Members of the Zalenski family suffered non-life-threatening burns and injuries, though in court they recounted traumatic memories that they said would not soon heal.

    Alex Zalenski’s sister, Ava, recalled being awakened to the sound of yelling and heavy smoke clouding her room, choking her airways.

    “My dad told me to get down to breathe,” she said. “At age 20, I was ready to accept death.”

    The family had just minutes to escape the blaze, which consumed the property and left them without a home.

    Andrew Zalenski, the father of Alex and Ava Zalenski, recalled telling them to crawl on the floor to avoid inhaling smoke.

    He forced them out of a window before going to look for his wife, Stacy, he said, but could not find her and fled.

    It was challenging to describe the feeling of watching your home ablaze “believing your wife is burning to death inside,” he tearfully recounted.

    Stacy Zalenski had been trying, unsuccessfully, to save the dogs. The woman, who is battling breast and lung cancer, ultimately jumped from a second-floor window to survive.

    Andrew Zalenski suffered from severe smoke inhalation and was put in an induced coma in the hospital, he said.

    Meanwhile, Alex Zalenski — the young man whose relationship with Jones’ ex had enraged the Michigan man — said the attack “shredded any normalcy I had.”

    He had to withdraw from college after the incident, he said, and has since had trouble sleeping.

    “It felt as if my entire world had been set ablaze,” he told the court.

    Jones, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit and shoulder-length hair, showed little emotion during the Zalenski family’s remarks.

    Given the opportunity to speak, however, Jones took full responsibility for the crime.

    “I need to take accountability,” Jones said, his voice breaking. “I’m guilty — I’ve done what I’ve done.”

    Jones’ family, including his father, mother, sister, stepfather, stepmother, and stepbrother, were in the gallery behind him.

    Jones’ attorney, Paul Lang, said Jones had no previous criminal record and had suffered physical abuse growing up. To cope, he had turned to abusing Xanax and marijuana, Lang said.

    Jones, for his part, alluded to being under the influence of drugs during the attack.

    In addition to sentencing Jones to decades in prison, Bucks County Court Judge Matthew D. Weintraub ordered him to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the Zalenski family.

    Weintraub told the Zalenskis that the trauma of the attack had clearly bonded their family.

    Addressing Jones, the judge said he believed the young man had attempted to “effectuate maximum damage” that day.

  • Police searching for ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect in killings of two men in city’s towing industry

    Police searching for ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect in killings of two men in city’s towing industry

    Philadelphia police are searching for a suspect in connection with the shooting deaths of two tow truck drivers, department officials said Wednesday.

    Najee Williams, 27, is considered armed and dangerous, police said. Homicide investigators say Williams is connected to the fatal shootings of 20-year-old David Garcia-Morales in December and 25-year-old Aaron Whitfield in January.

    Williams faces charges of murder, conspiracy, and related crimes. There is a $20,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.

    The killings of Garcia-Morales and Whitfield, who police say worked for the Jenkintown-based towing company 448 Towing and Recovery, rattled the city and put a focus on the competitive business of towing.

    Williams is the owner and operator of N.K.W Towing and Recovery, of North Philadelphia, according to a police source who asked not to be identified to discuss an ongoing investigation.

    A Facebook page for N.K.W features photos of car accidents and messages urging potential customers to call the company.

    “INVOLVED IN A ACCIDENT OR SEE ONE CALL ME” one message says.

    Another post from 2024 says: “Left the streets in a patty wagon, came back home and got right to it! Been home for 2 years now & as I sit here and think how bless I’m to have my freedom back.”

    It was not immediately clear who made the post.

    Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, commanding officer of the homicide unit, said forensic evidence collected from a stolen Honda used in the shooting of Whitfield led investigators to Williams.

    The department’s fugitive task force and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the search for Williams, whose last known whereabouts were in Montgomery County, authorities say.

    On Dec. 22, police were called to 4200 Torresdale Avenue to find Garcia-Morales shot and injured inside a Ford F-450 towing vehicle. He was struck in the neck and thigh, and died four days later at Temple University Hospital.

    The second shooting, which took place on Jan. 11 on the 2100 block of Knorr Street, left Whitfield dead at the scene after he was struck by gunfire in the head and body.

    Whitfield had also been sitting in a tow truck, according to police. His 21-year-old girlfriend was shot in the leg and survived her injuries.

    Philadelphia’s towing industry is competitive and drivers often traverse the city in search of car accidents, hoping to be the first to arrive at the scene.

    That practice persists despite a city policy that requires police and dispatchers to cycle through a list of approved towing companies to contact when responding to accidents.

  • Villanova football player accused of rape texted victim hours after alleged assault

    Villanova football player accused of rape texted victim hours after alleged assault

    A freshman football player at Villanova University texted the woman he is accused of raping to apologize for the encounter, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest, offering new details about the incident.

    D’Hani Cobbs, 20, was charged with rape, sexual assault, and related crimes after police say he assaulted a woman who also attends the university. He was removed from campus following the Dec. 7 attack, school officials said in a statement. The student newspaper the Villanovan first reported his arrest.

    According to the affidavit, Cobbs allegedly assaulted the woman in Good Counsel Hall on the Main Line school’s South Campus.

    The early morning attack began after Cobbs and the woman, whom police did not identify, met at an off-campus event and exchanged phone numbers, the document said.

    The two later got a ride with others back to South Campus, according to the affidavit. Sometime between 1 and 2 a.m., Cobbs and the woman entered a residence hall room along with another person, whom the filing did not identify. That person left, the document said, leaving the woman alone with Cobbs.

    Cobbs asked the woman for a hug, and then he “tried to kiss her, and she said no,” the filing said. Cobbs then “pinned her up against a desk” and began touching her buttocks and genitals and penetrated her with his fingers, the affidavit said. He then grabbed her and lifted her on top of his bed and allegedly raped her, according to the affidavit.

    The woman later told police she was screaming and crying during the attack. She said she left the room in tears and asked Cobbs to call a friend to pick her up.

    Cobbs later contacted the woman twice, according to the filing.

    Around 2 a.m., he texted: “Are [you for real] good tho? That was random [as hell]” and “U were jus fine.”

    Just before 5:30 p.m., Cobbs texted: “Yoo Wsp, u ok? My apologies if I made u feel uncomfortable in any way last night I didn’t have any intentions on making u feel uncomfortable. If u want to talk about it over the phone or in person we can just to come to more of a understanding.”

    When investigators interviewed Cobbs that week, he did not deny that he had sexual contact with the woman but said it was consensual.

    Cobbs’ defense attorney, Thomas G. Masciocchi, did not immediately return a request for comment.

    Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said in a statement Monday that prosecutors had reviewed evidence in the case and swiftly brought charges.

    “The message here is as simple as it is clear — when it comes to other people’s bodies, no means no, and stop means stop,” Rouse said. “That’s what we tell our kids and it holds true throughout life, no matter who you are or how talented an athlete you might be.”

    As of this week, Cobbs’ player bio page on Villanova’s website is out of service with an error message.

    Cobbs’ profile on ESPN is still active, and lists the New Jersey native as a wide receiver. He returned one punt last season, according to the page. A post from the Instagram account for Villanova’s football team announced Cobbs’ signing in 2024.

    A Villanova spokesperson said in a statement that in addition to ordering Cobbs to leave campus, the school is “committed to both supporting the victim and fostering a safe environment for all of our students.”

    Cobbs was arraigned Friday and was released on unsecured bail, according to court records. He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 12 and is ordered not to have contact with the woman.

  • ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    A former WHYY intern who pepper-sprayed a conservative influencer on a SEPTA bus was charged with simple assault and other crimes by prosecutors in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, officials said.

    Video of the Jan. 19 incident between 22-year-old Paulina Reyes and 22-year-old Francis Scales quickly went viral on social media, garnering millions of views and spurring reactions from right-leaning influencers and Elon Musk.

    During the confrontation, Reyes — whose internship with WHYY had ended before the incident — accused Scales of being a “fascist” and a “racist” for posting content online she viewed as insulting to Muslims and people of color.

    Attorney General Dave Sunday, in announcing Thursday that his office’s mass transit prosecutor would oversee the case, said “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.

    “This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” the attorney general said in a statement.

    In addition to simple assault, Reyes is charged with possessing an instrument of a crime, a misdemeanor. She also faces charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, which are summary offenses.

    Reyes was arraigned Thursday morning and released without having to to post bail.

    The mass transit prosecutor for Philadelphia, Michael Untermeyer, worked with SEPTA police to bring the charges, according to Sunday.

    The special prosecutor position, created in 2023 to pursue crimes committed on SEPTA, had been slow to take cases up until last year.

    It has drawn criticism from District Attorney Larry Krasner, who last year challenged the law that created the post, saying it was unconstitutional, unfairly singled out Philadelphia, and stripped his office of authority.

    A spokesperson for Krasner did not immediately return a request for comment on the special prosecutor’s decision.

    Footage of the South Philadelphia incident ricocheted across conservative media, and some influencers had accused Reyes of being an “Antifa agitator” and called for her arrest. Musk’s comments on X, suggesting Reyes had “violence issues,” generated hundreds of thousands of views alone.

    Reyes told The Inquirer in an earlier interview that she had been defending herself against Scales, who was filming her, and that resorting to pepper spray was “not something I wanted to do.”

    She said she has since received death and rape threats for her role in the confrontation. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.

    Reyes and Scales knew each other from attending the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a student.

    Videos on Scales’ social media page, Surge Philly, show the commentator interviewing attendees at protests, asking them questions about charged topics such as immigration enforcement. He has also been a vocal critic of Krasner.

    Scales said Reyes’ pepper spray got in his face and eyes, and Sunday, the attorney general, said Reyes also punched the man. A friend who was with Scales filmed the incident. Scales, too, filmed Reyes, saying he did so for his own safety.

    Scales said in a statement that he was grateful for the attorney general’s decision to bring charges, and that he hoped that would deter others from similar actions.

    “No one has the right to physically attack another person because of different opinions,” Scales said.

  • Man steals bike from SEPTA bus before shooting a man dead in Southwest Philadelphia, police say

    Man steals bike from SEPTA bus before shooting a man dead in Southwest Philadelphia, police say

    A 19-year-old man was arrested and will be charged with homicide in the fatal shooting of another man in Southwest Philadelphia on Wednesday night, according to police.

    The shooting occurred at 66th Street and Dicks Avenue just after 10 p.m.

    The suspect, whom police did not immediately identify, had just stolen a bicycle from a SEPTA bus at a nearby intersection, police said, when he encountered the man he later shot, also a 19-year-old whom police did not identify.

    Police responded to the scene to find the victim unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the throat. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead around 10:20 p.m.

    The shooter fled after robbing a second person of an electric bicycle, police said.

    Investigators tracked the shooter to 84th Street and Bartram Avenue, where they took him into custody and recovered a firearm, police said.

  • A Bucks County bust that ‘dismantled’ a drug ring yielded 8 guns and $4 million in drugs, officials say

    A Bucks County bust that ‘dismantled’ a drug ring yielded 8 guns and $4 million in drugs, officials say

    Bucks County prosecutors charged a man who fired a gun at police during a narcotics operation this month with attempted murder and related crimes, authorities said Tuesday. It was the latest development in a multistate investigation that led to the recovery of eight firearms and $4 million in drugs.

    Police arrested the man, Nicholas Sperando, 26, of Philadelphia, on Jan. 15 after the shooting at his rowhouse on Fairdale Road in Northeast Philadelphia, according to Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan’s office.

    Sperando’s home was one of several locations involved in an extensive drug-trafficking organization, officials said.

    After announcing their intent to serve a warrant at Sperando’s home that day, agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and Pennsylvania state troopers prepared to breach Sperando’s door with a battering ram.

    Instead, they were met with gunfire from inside the home.

    After firing a round, Sperando fired a second shot through the front door, “directly targeting the position where the officers had been standing,” officials said.

    No officers fired their weapons or were injured in the operation.

    “This cowardly act against our officers was an attack on the rule of law, and our office will always protect those who risk their lives to protect us, even when that happens across county lines,” Khan said when announcing the charges.

    Sperando surrendered during the incident and is being held without bail on two counts of attempted murder and attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, as well as three counts of aggravated assault and related drug crimes.

    The arrest, Khan’s office said, was the culmination of a monthslong investigation that “dismantled” a multimillion-dollar trafficking organization.

    For months, authorities said, undercover officers had purchased drugs from Sperando in Levittown and Northeast Philadelphia. Bucks County officials asserted control of the Philadelphia jurisdiction for the sake of their investigation, according to officials.

    Investigators searched Sperando’s residence and recovered a FN Herstal 5.7 pistol that they said was used in the shooting — including a live round jammed in the gun, which, in prosecutors’ view, likely prevented fatalities among law enforcement officers.

    Meanwhile, authorities said, investigators found a variety of controlled substances and other weapons located across Sperando’s residence, his place of work on James Street, and a stash house on Day Street.

    At the Day Street house, officers arrested another man, David Tierney, who they say was also involved in the operation.

    Investigators said they seized an AR-style rifle, a Glock handgun with extended magazine, and bulk quantities of marijuana and proceeds from drug sales from Sperando’s home, while the alleged stash house yielded a firearm found under a pillow and a trailer containing “enormous quantities” of marijuana and THC vaporizers.

    At Sperando’s workplace, which officials did not name, officers recovered a Mossberg pump shotgun, a Ruger .380 pistol, and a “significant supply” of psilocybin mushrooms and edibles, authorities said.

    In all, officials said, the operation yielded 300 pounds of marijuana and 17,000 vaporizers, as well as 80 pounds of THC concentrate, 600 bags of THC edibles, 15 pounds of mushrooms, 75 mushroom edibles, 300 Adderall pills, and two ounces of cocaine.

    Sperando is being held in custody without bail. Tierney is being held on $250,000 bail. A third suspect in the operation, Nicholas Keenoy, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday.

  • ‘The favorite Auntie’: Woman who died after a car struck her wheelchair remembered at sentencing for the vehicle’s driver

    ‘The favorite Auntie’: Woman who died after a car struck her wheelchair remembered at sentencing for the vehicle’s driver

    She was more than just an unhoused person.

    That’s the way Sharon Cary-Irvine would like the world to remember her sister, Tracey.

    In 2024, Tracey Cary was struck and killed by a 39-year-old driver in Lower Merion as she crossed City Avenue in a wheelchair.

    The driver, Jamal McCullough, assessed his vehicle for damage before fleeing the scene without helping her or calling police, prosecutors said. He turned himself in to authorities after reports of the collision — and his photograph — aired across local news outlets.

    On Friday, McCullough was sentenced in Montgomery County Common Pleas court to serve three to six years in a state prison, the mandatory minimum for such a crime. While prosecutors said he was not at fault in the fatal collision because Cary was crossing outside of a posted crosswalk, they said his actions after the crash were criminal.

    For Cary-Irvine, the hearing was a chance to offer the public a more complete image of her late sister.

    Cary, 61, was an avid reader who loved children, traveling, and the outdoors, according to Cary-Irvine. She was a fan of spelling bee competitions, and she had a sense of humor: she was known for calling up her nieces and nephews and speaking to them as Cookie Monster, her sister said.

    “She had a love of people — babies were her specialty,” Cary-Irvine said. “She was the favorite Auntie. To know Tracey was to love Tracey.”

    Cary was also a mother to a son who is in his 20s, her sister said, and she held a variety of jobs throughout her life, working for the Philadelphia School District, St. Joseph’s University, and later UPS.

    She was a singer of gospel songs, and grew up attending Union Tabernacle Baptist Church in West Philadelphia.

    Before Cary’s death, the siblings’ father died from COVID-19, leading Cary to struggle with mental illness, her sister said. Soon she was living on the street.

    It was on the street where McCullough struck Cary shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2024.

    Surveillance footage showed that McCullough, of East Germantown, struck Cary with enough force to eject her from her wheelchair. After checking on his vehicle, he walked within feet of Cary’s body but did not stop to help her, prosecutors said.

    The father of two was en route to a shift as a sanitation worker with Waste Management.

    During his sentencing, McCullough apologized for the incident, which he said was an accident.

    “I want to apologize for my ignorance, apologize for maybe how I went about things,” McCullough said.

    “If I could take it back, I definitely would.”

    Minutes earlier, Cary-Irvine read a victim impact statement aloud, telling the court that, in her view, McCullough acted “entitled and without remorse” that morning.

    “This sentence is not about revenge — it’s an opportunity, perhaps your last, to reflect honestly on your life,” Cary-Irvine told McCullough.

    “If you do not learn from your mistakes,” she continued, “you will repeat them.”

  • Three people targeted, two of them Temple University students, in armed robberies near campus this week

    Three people targeted, two of them Temple University students, in armed robberies near campus this week

    A Temple student and another individual not associated with the university were robbed by armed men near the school’s North Philadelphia campus early Thursday, according to university officials.

    Around 1:30 a.m., the Temple student was walking near the 1500 block of Oxford Street when two men approached with a handgun and stole the student’s phone, Jennifer Griffin, Temple’s vice president for public safety and chief of police, said in a statement.

    The men ran off and fired one shot in the air as they fled.

    Minutes earlier, in a separate incident several blocks away, those men robbed another individual, stealing that person’s phone, near the 1300 block of Carlisle Street.

    The robberies were the second instance of phone theft near Temple’s campus this week.

    Around 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday, a man with a handgun approached a Temple student walking on the 1800 block of West Montgomery Avenue and stole that person’s phone, Griffin said in an earlier statement.

    The robber fled north on 18th Street. No arrests have been made in the incidents.

    On Thursday, Griffin announced that Temple and Philadelphia police would be coordinating a concentrated presence in the area as both departments investigate the robberies.

    “Incidents like this are deeply troubling,” Griffin said.

    Later in the day, Temple’s public safety department released an image of two suspects wanted in connection with Thursday’s robberies, urging anyone who recognized them to contact Investigations@temple.edu or call 215-204-6200.

    Griffin also highlighted that students who were affected by the incidents may use the campus’ walking escort program, its nighttime fixed-route shuttle service, and the school’s personal safety app.

  • Man found dead in shuttered senior housing complex was electrocuted, authorities say

    Man found dead in shuttered senior housing complex was electrocuted, authorities say

    A man died after being electrocuted inside a dilapidated West Philadelphia senior housing complex Wednesday morning, authorities say.

    The discovery came a day after city officials touted a $50 million investment into the vacant property, the Brith Sholom House,which is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority and has been shuttered since August 2025.

    The man’s body was found around 5:45 a.m. after police were called to the property, located on the 3900 block of Conshohocken Avenue.

    The man, whom police did not identity, was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:40 a.m.

    Kelvin A. Jeremiah, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, said the complex’s doors and windows on the lower floors have been sealed since tenants left the property, though there have been several instances in which individuals managed to enter in an attempt to steal copper wiring from within the structure.

    Early Wednesday morning, a 911 call was placed from Brith Sholom by a man who told police that a contractor had gotten hurt on the job and needed assistance, Jeremiah said.

    But Jeremiah said the housing authority had not authorized any such work, and no one was permitted on the property at the time.

    The housing authority later learned that the man was electrocuted and died after he tried to strip copper wire from the complex’s basement. The body was found next to the switch gears, Jeremiah said.

    The CEO suspects the person who called 911 was an accomplice in the break-in, though police are still investigating.

    The housing authority’s security cameras were not active during the incident because much of the building’s power is off, and other cameras have been destroyed by bad actors, according to Jeremiah.

    He said the individuals might have used a ladder to enter the complex through the third floor.

    Just a day earlier, Brith Sholom received a much different sort of attention.

    On Tuesday, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced that the city’s powerful building trades unions would offer PHA a sizable loan to redevelop the complex, which the housing authority purchased from its former owners in 2024 in order to preserve it.

    Prior to the sale, tenants had complained of rampant neglect and repeated code violations, including deteriorating infrastructure, threats of utility shutoffs, squatters, and severe pest infestations.

    After PHA acquired the property, it initially told its 111 residents they could remain in their units. But upon discovering some units were damaged beyond repair, officials told those residents they would need to move out and return at a later date.

    The Brith Sholom project, when completed, is expected to add 336 affordable units for seniors on fixed incomes, Parker said in her announcement Tuesday.

    The mayor cast the complex’s revival as a first-of-its-kind approach to expanding the city’s affordable housing stock, one that would help her administration reach its goal of building, redeveloping, or preserving 30,000 units.