DEAR ABBY: I am a senior woman in great shape. I am active, and I have never had a problem attracting men. Five years ago, I married a man I had known for many years. We used to have a pretty active sex life, but it has been four years since he has touched me in an intimate way. He says he doesn’t know why, and that it is due to lack of confidence.
I’m afraid that if I don’t leave, I’ll never know the loving arms of a man around me again. In other ways, we get along fine, but as time has progressed, I no longer find him attractive. If he did make a move today, I think I would reject it because too much hurt has happened.
Financially, leaving would be a disaster. Our friends and family think we are a great couple, but no one knows the truth. I feel like I am sinking into a morass with each long, lonely day. Please advise.
— UNTOUCHED IN COSTA RICA
DEAR UNTOUCHED: Before you sink further into depression, I urge you to discuss this with your doctor and get a referral to a licensed psychotherapist. Make no hard-and-fast decisions about your marriage until you are feeling better. I don’t know what caused your husband’s problem. Neither do you, and it’s possible that neither does he.
Is your husband aware of how strongly you feel about this and that you are seriously considering leaving? If he isn’t, would he be willing to explore possible solutions and perhaps heal your relationship? And, finally, if he is, would YOU be willing to try again? I know I am giving you more questions than answers, but they are worth considering.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: As the compliance officer at a university, it’s my job to run mandatory training for faculty and staff. They know the dates, times and schedules for the meetings weeks in advance. I try hard to keep these training sessions as short and as few in number as possible, which means we need to use all the time available.
My issue is that whenever we call a short break, some subset of people will wander away to unknown destinations. Are they looking for coffee? A bandage? A reevaluation of their life goals? We never know.
I am left with two choices: Hold everyone up and wait for them to return, which is polite but ensures we will all end the day late, or start without them. The ruder option means I must deny their certification until they meet with me to catch up on what they missed. Both options are frustrating.
I’ve learned that the longer the break, the more people who will go missing. No number of warnings or amount of cajoling will bring everyone back on time. So which option is better: starting, or waiting?
— RUNNING THE SHOW IN MASSACHUSETTS
DEAR RUNNING: Stop being such a pushover. At the beginning of each meeting, explain to the attendees that everyone must be present for the entire presentation OR YOU CANNOT CERTIFY THEM. Then follow through. Do not continue to make yourself available for those who skip out, because it is disrespectful of the folks who stayed.
Nearly 20 people witnessed an assault in the Cheltenham High football team’s locker room last fall, according to an external investigation commissioned by the school district.
No one tried to stop it, “and several participated freely in it,” Superintendent Brian Scriven told the Cheltenham community in an e-mailed message Thursday. “Several students also filmed the assault.”
The assault — which happened Sept. 3 — ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the team’s season in October and led to the hazing investigation, for which Scriven released the results Thursday night. His message did not include additional details about the assault.
Though a pattern of hazing was “not fully substantiated,” Scriven wrote, other troubling findings include: inadequate student supervision in the locker room, “a failure to prioritize student safety by the coaching staff and/or adult volunteers,” no anti-bullying or anti-hazing education for team members, and “a toxic and negative culture within the current football program.”
The team’s head coach, according to a 2025 Cheltenham news release, had been Terence Tolbert, a business teacher at the school and a former semi-professional football player. When reached Thursday, Tolbert declined to comment.
Cheltenham’s football program will be rebuilt eventually, Scriven said, and the district will adopt investigators’ recommendations, including identifying, hiring, and training a “new coaching staff with strong commitment to leading student-athletes in a positive and responsible manner,” and strengthening team supervision.
But, Scriven said, fielding a team in 2026 is not a given for the district.
The superintendent alluded to “a general lack of credibility on the part of many of those interviewed during the investigatory process” and said parent, student, and staff cooperation going forward is crucial.
“Those students who were not involved in this situation are especially important to rebuilding the culture of our program,” Scriven said. “If all of these conditions are met, the district will stand up a football team for the 2026 season.”
It is not yet clear whether the students involved could face punishment or criminal charges. Multiple students have ongoing Title IX and disciplinary matters, which could affect their eligibility to play football. Cheltenham Township police and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office are both still investigating the incident, according to the district’s message Thursday.
Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.
A Wilmington native who died while being held as a prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II has been positively identified through analysis of his remains, U.S. military officials said this week.
Army Lt. Col. Louis E. Roemer was taken prisoner in the Philippines when the Japanese captured the island fortress of Corregidor in May 1942 after American forces lost the Bataan Peninsula, according to historical news accounts.
He remained a POW in the Philippines until late 1944, when the Japanese began to move prisoners as an American invasion force retook the occupied territory.
Roemer may have survived transport on two Japanese “hell ships” — which had reputations for inhumane conditions and cruel treatment — that were both attacked by Allied forces, only to die afterward of an illness, reportedly on Jan. 22, 1945. He was 43.
He had been loaded in Manila onto the transport ship Oryoku Maru, destined for Japan. However, U.S. carrier-borne aircraft attacked the Oryoku Maru, and it eventually sank in Subic Bay on Dec. 15, 1944.
Roemer was then transported to Formosa, now known as Taiwan, aboard the Enoura Maru. While that ship was docked at the Port of Takao in Formosa and still loaded with prisoners of war, it was hit by Allied aircraft on Jan. 9, 1945. Approximately 400 Allied POWs were killed.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Japanese reported that after the Enoura Maru was attacked, Roemer was placed aboard the Brazil Maru, bound for Moji, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Roemer reportedly died of acute colitis during the last stage of transport, the Japanese reported.
“However, since historical and contemporary evidence indicate that the Japanese government-reported Brazil Maru casualties list contains errors, he conceivably could have died at any point during this December 1944 to January 1945 POW transport, including the Jan. 9 attack on the Enoura Maru,” the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.
In 1946, a U.S. military search-and-recovery team exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao in Formosa and recovered 311 bodies. Attempts to identify the remains were unsuccessful, and they were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In 2022 and 2023, remains linked to the Enoura Maru were disinterred from the Punchbowl for analysis. Scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said. Scientists also used mitochondrial, Y-chromosome, and autosomal DNA analysis.
Roemer was officially accounted for on July 28, 2025, the agency said Wednesday. The announcement was made after Roemer’s family received a briefing on his identification.
Roemer will be buried in Pittsburgh, the agency said.
According to historical news accounts, Roemer was one of three brothers who served as high-ranking military officers during World War II. He was born in Wilmington and graduated from the University of Delaware in 1922 with a chemical engineering degree. He was inducted into the Army through the ROTC.
Before the war, he was assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines under Maj. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright.
Japan attacked the Philippines just hours after Pearl Harbor. On April 9, 1942, American and Filipino forces surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula, and Corregidor fell about a month later.
Roemer was subjected to the notorious Bataan Death March, which led to the death of thousands of POWs.
His family did not know what had happened to him until December 1942, when they were notified by the U.S. War Department that he was a prisoner of war in the Philippines.
Roemer was able to send a couple of postcards to his family through a system facilitated by the International Red Cross, and on one occasion a freed POW was able to communicate a message to Roemer’s family he had heard through a POW “grapevine.”
Col. Louis D. Hutson wrote to Roemer’s wife, Mary, and said Roemer “was in very good health and quite cheerful and he asked in case I were returned to the States before he returned that I write you and send you and his boys and his mother all his love,” the Wilmington News Journal reported on March 30, 1945.
At that point, Roemer had already been dead for at least two months.
His family did not learn about his death for about five more months.
Roemer was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star Medal with V device and the Legion of Merit award.
“Colonel Roemer saved hundreds of lives during the famed Bataan Death March, but it was for his service before the surrender of American troops that he was decorated,” a 1947 News Journal article said.
Another news story relayed an account by Sgt. Alfred Torrisi, who said that during the Bataan Death March, Roemer “often slipped out of camp at night into the jungle to get wood for charcoal, from which he made the only soothing medicine available for the sick men.”
Torrisi said Roemer was in charge of hospital service at the Cabanatuan prison camp, where “practically everyone was a patient.”
Washington Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter knows better than anyone that Trinity Rodman’s future is the biggest story in the women’s game right now.
Carter also is sworn to secrecy over the superstar’s contract talks, a fact she reiterated as she spoke Thursday at the United Soccer Coaches Convention here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. But that did not stop her from talking about Rodman in other ways, including her impact on the NWSL and the sport as a whole.
Carter saw The Inquirer’s recent feature on U.S. captain Lindsey Heaps, which made the point that only five teams in Europe are at a truly high enough level to be worth it for the top American talent: England’s Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City, France’s OL Lyonnes, and Spain’s Barcelona. All but Barcelona have top U.S. players, with City signing Penn State product Sam Coffey this week.
A veteran of two NWSL teams’ front offices, two national team coaching staffs, and the Houston Dash bench as a player, Carter agreed with the point. Many other teams in Europe are trying to raise their games, but none has reached the level of those five yet.
Haley Carter (right) speaking on a panel at the United Soccer Coaches convention on Thursday with USL Super League president Amanda Vandervort (left) and Women’s Premier Soccer League commissioner Kendra Halterman (center).
Does that matter when trying to sign not just Rodman, but other players from around the world?
“We’re not necessarily competing with leagues, per se, for U.S. talent — we are competing with very specific clubs, and we have to be cognizant of that” Carter told The Inquirer. “That being said, though, more teams and more leagues are starting to make major investments. So the number of teams that we’re competing with is going to grow every year, right?”
Indeed it is, and many have said the NWSL should compete accordingly. Raising the salary cap by $1-2 million this winter would be the fastest way to do it, and far less controversial than the league’s High Impact Player status that is set to take effect in July.
The NWSL Players Association formally filed a grievance against that on Wednesday, six weeks after filing a grievance over commissioner Jessica Berman’s veto of a contract that Spirit owner Michele Kang offered Rodman.
Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang already offered a contract to superstar Trinity Rodman, but it was vetoed by NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.
It is widely understood that Rodman wants to stay in Washington but wants a deal that will pay her what she’s worth. Kang, who also owns OL Lyonnes and England’s London City Lionesses, is clearly ready to offer it.
Rodman isn’t just a star in the U.S.
For now, everyone else is stuck waiting. But that did not stop Carter from offering a few words in a seminar Thursday that will raise the heat a bit.
“The reasoning behind having a salary cap is to have competitive parity,” she said. “And I think you hear the phrase ‘best league in the world’ thrown around a lot about the NWSL, but the reality is we are the most competitive league in the world; we are not the best league in the world. I wouldn’t even know how you would measure that.”
There surely are ways, whether subjective or statistical. The former would include the endorsements international players make when they come over here, such as one Gotham FC and Spain striker Esther González gave to Sports Illustrated last year.
“Every match you play in, you have to prepare like it is a final,” she said. “There are a lot of international players who are at the top of their game and want to play in the NWSL, and there’s a reason for that.”
Esther González (right) on the ball for Gotham FC during last year’s NWSL championship game.
Carter said that point “still resonates with players. Players want to play in a league where every match is a meaningful match.”
But some of her other remarks, on the business side of the game, might have framed Rodman’s importance even more strongly.
“How can we tap into that international fan base and find a way to monetize that?” Carter said. “If you look at Trinity Rodman for instance — Trinity Rodman’s kit sells like crazy in the U.K. How can we do that for more of our athletes? How do we create that buzz and excitement?”
Rodman’s jersey sells plenty well in the U.S. too, whether it’s her Spirit one or her U.S. national team one. Just the potential of her presence at Washington’s Audi Field on a game day helped the Spirit draw an average attendance of 15,259 last year, third-best of the NWSL’s 14 teams.
“One of the reasons I came to the Washington Spirit was because of the work that Michele Kang has done specifically to make the Spirit a cultural icon within that city,” said Carter, who took the job in early December.
She tied that to the Spirit’s grassroots work in Washington as much as anything else, but specter of Rodman still hung over the moment for many people in the room.
A milestone of a different kind will come later this month when FIFA stages its inaugural Women’s Champions Cup in London. In the semifinals, Gotham will play Brazil’s Corinthians, and Arsenal will play Morocco’s AS FAR — all winners of their respective continental championships.
Those games will be single moments among many, but they’ll still be a measuring stick.
Gotham FC won last season’s Concacaf women’s Champions Cup to qualify for FIFA’s inaugural global tournament.
“It may not necessarily reflect whether your league is the best league in the world, but it gives a good opportunity for us to put our best teams against other best teams,” Carter said.
It might also make a point about another measuring stick that gets attention: player rankings by the international media. This year’s edition strongly favored European players, partially because some major U.S. players have been out of action — Rodman and Rose Lavelle with injuries, Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson while pregnant.
But beyond that, many voters are based in Europe, so they might favor players whom they see more. And now the rankings have even more significance because the NWSL is using them to judge players’ eligibility for HIP status.
“I always take those player ratings with a bit of a grain of salt,” Carter said, and wondered aloud why the players should care about things “that in the big scheme of things are very subjective, anyhow.”
But there is a reason, she admitted: “Now you look at the HIP criteria, and so much of the HIP criteria is based on these ranking and ratings.”
A 22-year-old man was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in her 90s during one of four home break-ins last year in Montgomery County, authorities said Thursday.
John Vernon Gray of Telford was arrested Jan. 10 and was charged with rape and related offenses. He was being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
The four nighttime break-ins occurred around Towamencin Township and involved four women who Gray allegedly believed were living alone, authorities said.
On May 10, around 2:25 a.m., a 79-year-old woman was awakened by a man trying to enter her house on Dock Drive through her bedroom window, authorities said. She screamed and scared him away.
About an hour later, a man entered a residence in the Dock Woods Senior Living Community and sexually assaulted the occupant, a woman in her 90s, authorities said.
On Nov. 8, two more break-ins occurred. Police responded around 3 a.m. to a home on Dock Drive where a 72-year-old woman reported being awakened by a man in her bedroom who attempted to lift her nightgown, authorities said. The woman screamed and the man fled.
About 30 minutes later, a man entered a residence on Crosshill Court in Towamencin Township through a rear sliding glass door, entered the bedroom, and touched a 46-year-old woman, authorities said. The man fled when the woman screamed for her husband.
Physicians Zsofi Szep and Judy Chertok have spent the last three years working to connect Penn Medicine patients with addiction treatment — with the help of a federal grant that they learned was terminated in a form letter Tuesday.
They rushed to find a way to keep caring for their patients, many with HIV or hepatitis C and needing supports such as housing and food after treatment. The salaries of two staffers helping to connect people with such resources had been entirely grant-funded.
“To stop this from one day to the next was obviously devastating,” Szep said. “It’s not possible to stop patient care. We continued to do what we were doing.”
NPR reported that some $2 billion in grants were cut off, and grantees like Szep and Chertok received form letters that said only that their projects no longer aligned with agency priorities.
The move sparked immediate outrage from providers and legislators alike. U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery) helped marshal 100 congressional representatives to sign a bipartisan letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanding the funding be restored.
By Wednesday night, it had been, The Associated Press reported — still with little explanation from federal officials. HHS did not return a request for comment Thursday. The agency also declined to answer questions about the reasons for the rescissions from The Associated Press.
But providers at the programs affected by the whiplash of rescinded, then restored, funding said they were shaken by a chaotic 24 hours and worried about what the move signaled.
As of late Thursday, one Philadelphia provider who receives SAMHSA grants said she had not yet received notice from the agency that funding had been restored.
“It’s a message that what we’re doing is not important,” said Barbara Schindler, the medical director of the women’s addiction treatment program Caring Together.
“The people that work day to day on the front lines, we’re dealing with folks that are living on the edge and need all the help they can get. To feel like your rug can get pulled out from underneath you at any one point, both as a provider as well as a participant, is very upsetting.”
Uncertainty amid attempted cuts
It’s unclear how many programs in the Philadelphia area were affected.
Gaudenzia, an addiction treatment provider with locations across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, had grants rescinded, then restored, that were related to expanding treatment access, addiction prevention, and support services, a spokesperson said.
Gaudenzia’s president and CEO, Deja Gilbert, said she understood the need for “fiscal responsibility at the federal level,” but funding changes should be made in collaboration with providers.
“Abrupt funding actions — even when reversed — create uncertainty for providers and the people we serve,” she said in a statement.
Szep and Chertok’s program at Penn, which has served about 125 patients over the last few years, is aimed at some of the health system’s most vulnerable patients, connecting patients in the hospital or outpatient clinics with addiction treatment.
“It’s a very sick and complicated group of patients, who are specifically referred to an extra-specialized team,” Chertok said.
They were relieved when their funding was restored on Thursday but remain worried about the future.
“So many other people have similar grants in our city through SAMHSA — the amount of people that are getting care through these types of programs is really dramatic, and we don’t have other ways of getting them care,” Chertok said.
Schindler, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Drexel University, said SAMHSA funding through two grants allows her 36-year-old clinic to support medication for women with opioid use disorder and a reentry program for women incarcerated for drug-related crimes.
“It allows us to have more addiction counselors and staff that can address the incredible needs these ladies have,” she said. “It really enhances the program.”
She said she was “on pins and needles” waiting to hear that her funding had been restored.
‘Incompetence and cruelty’
Dean said she learned of the cuts when a staffer pulled her aside to share a news article, reporting that SAMHSA had abruptly rescinded $2 billion in funding from more than 2,000 grants. Almost immediately afterward, the head of a Pennsylvania network of addiction treatment providers called her.
They began working to determine how many local grants had been affected, an effort that’s still ongoing.
“Immediately, what I thought was, this will cost lives. People will die as a result of this level of incompetence and cruelty,” Dean said.
She said she had not received answers from the administration on the reasoning behind the cuts.
Dean called the terminations hypocritical, noting that President Donald Trump has justified military operations in Venezuela as an effort to combat drug trafficking even as his administration attempted to cut billions in drug treatment funding at home.
“It’s incompetent, illegal, unconstitutional, and we got no notice,” she said.
Dean said she was pleased that programs were seeing their funding restored, although she was still unsure what had prompted the decision, and was concerned about the precedent the move set.
“I’m of the mind that it will happen again. And there is real harm — I don’t care if the interruption is 24 hours,” she said. “Interruptions can have large impacts.”
At his end-of-year news conference on Thursday afternoon with Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni explained his decision to remove Kevin Patullo from the offensive coordinator position, pointing to a need for the Eagles offense to “evolve.”
The highest-paid offense in the NFL was stagnant for the majority of the 2025 season. A midseason spark in Weeks 7 and 8 — highlighted by under-center runs and play-action passes — was fleeting. The shotgun-heavy offense, while often capable of protecting the football and scoring in the red zone, was seldom explosive in the open field.
Patullo’s offense finished the season 19th in the NFL in scoring, 24th in total yards, and 13th in expected points added per play, which measures the average points added by the offense on each play. The next offensive coordinator has room for growth with a bevy of talent.
“I think it’s important to continue to evolve as an offense and that we go out and do what’s best for this football team,” Sirianni said. “Everything I do and every decision I have to make, I have to do that — just like Howie does, just like Mr. [Jeffrey] Lurie does — with the intent of [it] being the best thing for the football team.”
Sirianni said he removed Patullo from his post in the best interest of the team, but he didn’t outright fire the 44-year-old coach. For now, Patullo remains on staff. Sirianni said he will “see how it plays out,” acknowledging that Patullo will likely have opportunities elsewhere.
Patullo was a first-time offensive coordinator and a first-time offensive NFL play-caller. Will the pendulum swing in the other direction regarding the next offensive coordinator’s résumé? According to The Athletic, the Eagles have seasoned play-callers Brian Daboll and Mike McDaniel at the top of their candidates list.
What is Sirianni’s criteria for an offensive coordinator hire this time around? Again, he used a familiar word to sum up his broad aspiration.
“You’re looking to continue to evolve as an offense,” Sirianni said. “And I’m looking to bring in a guy that’s going to best help us do that.”
Later, he expanded on his criteria, without giving too much of an ideal candidate profile away.
“You always want someone that has a great vision and great conviction of things that they believe in and what they want to do,” Sirianni said. “You always want to have somebody that has the players on their mind first, and we’ll be able to attract a lot of good candidates because of the players that Howie’s assembled to be on our football team.
“You want somebody that has great vision, great conviction in what they do, is able to coach fundamentals well, to help the players get better. Because I believe in that. That can connect with guys. Because I believe in that. That has the mental toughness, because I believe in that.”
Ultimately, Sirianni said he wants to “find the best guy that fits the Philadelphia Eagles.” But is the best guy the one who will bring his own offense? Or is the best guy the one who will infuse his ideas within Sirianni’s scheme?
In 2024, when the Eagles hired Kellen Moore as their new offensive coordinator, Sirianni emphasized that they would “mesh” their systems. They would continue to do the “good things,” Sirianni said, that had become staples of Eagles offenses past, all while incorporating “new ideas.”
On Thursday, four days removed from the wild-card loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Sirianni wasn’t ready to discuss his precise degree of involvement in the 2026 Eagles offense.
“It’s way early,” Sirianni said. “Those decisions don’t have to be made for a long time, and as the head coach, you always have to [have] oversight of everything. And again, this year, obviously, I did. I got involved more in the offense as the end of the season came, because that’s what I needed to do as the head football coach there.”
While Sirianni will make the final decision on the next offensive coordinator, he won’t be the only person with input. He said he plans to use a variety of “resources” to inform his choice, including feedback from Jalen Hurts, among other prominent figures in the organization.
Hurts, the 27-year-old franchise quarterback, will enter his sixth season as the starter with his seventh play-caller. Two of his offensive coordinators, Moore and Shane Steichen, departed for head coaching gigs after brief stints in the role. In the past, Hurts has expressed a desire for consistency at the position, but he acknowledged on Monday the changes didn’t stop him from winning a Super Bowl last season.
Nick Sirianni, right, says he will seek feedback from Jalen Hurts, among others, in his choice of a new offensive coordinator.
Regardless, the Eagles aren’t necessarily in search of a Vic Fangio-esque candidate as their next offensive coordinator — someone who has no intentions of moving on to a head-coaching job — according to Roseman.
“It’s a great compliment when guys get head coaching jobs from here, because it means we’re having tremendous success,” Roseman said. “So as much as you’d like to have continuity, and I’d like to have guys here for a long period of time, we want to win. We have an urgency to win right now. And if that comes with the ramifications that we lose good people because they’ve earned head coaching jobs, we’ll live with that.”
There is no one way to be an offensive coordinator, Sirianni said. Everyone has different philosophies and visions for what it takes for an offense to be successful.
But there is only one acceptable outcome for an evolved Eagles offense and its new coordinator moving forward.
“It’s about finding the guy that best fits us, that gives us the best chance to get back to the top of the mountain where we ultimately want to go,” Sirianni said.
No one can say for certain what caused the first loud “pop” to echo down a South Philadelphia block — a single gunshot, a car backfiring, or something else entirely.
But within seconds, at least 15 people attending a party on the 1500 block of South Etting Street pulled out guns and started shooting, a chain reaction that left three people dead and 10 others wounded.
In the weeks that followed the July 7 mass shooting, police said they identified four people who fired weapons that night: Daquan Brown, 21, Terrell Frazier, 22, Brandon Fisher, 17, and Dieve Jardine, 45. Prosecutors charged each with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder, conspiracy, and related crimes.
Municipal Court Judge Francis W. McCloskey Jr. on Thursday ruled that the cases against the four men could move forward to trial on charges of third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and inciting a riot. He dismissed all counts of attempted murder and causing a catastrophe.
Throughout the nearly five-hour hearing, prosecutors, using a compilation of video and social media evidence, laid out in greatest detail yet how the shooting unfolded.
Dozens of people had gathered on the street the night of July 7, the second block party in as many days. Gunfire erupted just before 1 a.m.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope said the shooting was driven in part by paranoia.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope leaving the courthouse during a November trial.
Frazier and other young men at the party had been going back and forth with people on social media, she said, challenging someone who threatened to shoot up the party to “go ahead” in an Instagram Live video.
Less than 10 minutes later, she said, surveillance video showed a single loud “pop” that appeared to scare partygoers, who started to run down the block.
Eight seconds later, she said, at least 15 people at the party pulled out their guns and shot more than 120 bullets toward the end of the block.
But there’s no evidence anyone ever shot into the party, she said. The sound they believed was gunfire, she said, was likely a car backfiring.
“This is a tragedy because all of these defendants shot and killed their friends,” she said.
From left to right: Zahir Wylie, Jason Reese, and Azir Harris were killed in a mass shooting on the 1500 block of Etting Street on July 7.
Homicide Detective Joseph Cremen said he identified the four gunmen by combing surveillance video, phone, and social media records, and interviewing witnesses.
Fisher, he said, was seen on the porch of one of the homes using a gun with a “switch” attachment that caused him to spray dozens of bullets down the street, appearing at times as if he couldn’t control his weapon. In the teen’s phone, he said, were pictures of him with multiple guns, as well as the clothes he was wearing the night of the shooting and messages indicating he was selling firearms.
Police said the person directly in front of this video is Brandon Fisher, 17, using a gun with a switch on it to fire dozens of shots down Etting Street on July 7.
And Frazier, he said, talked about the shooting in text messages. About 12 hours after the shooting, he said, someone asked Frazier where he was when Wylie was struck.
“I was banging back,” Frazier wrote. He said the shooting was “bad,” and that Wylie “died from us.”
“He died from a stray,” he said, according to the texts.
Cremen said Brown admitted that he fired two shots with his legally owned gun, “then when he realized he wasn’t shooting at anything, he stopped and took cover.”
And Jardine, also known as Dieve Drumgoole, also told investigators he fired two or three shots after he saw someone come out of an alley on the block with a green laser attachment on a gun, the detective said.
Cremen didn’t recover video that showed anyone using a gun with a green laser beam.
Defense attorneys for the four men all argued that their clients were acting in self-defense, and only fired their guns because they believed someone was shooting at them. Police still do not know — and may never know — whose bullets struck each victim.
“There is no evidence that he struck anyone, there’s no evidence that he intended to strike anyone,” said Gina Amoriello, who represents Brown. “In all my years, I’ve never seen a case overcharged like this. This is extreme.”
Philadelphia Police Crimes Scene officer taking pictures at scene. Scene of an overnight shooting 1500 block S. Etting Street, Philadelphia, that sent several to hospital, fatalities, early Monday, July 7, 2025.
John Francis McCaul, Jardine’s lawyer, said the father was “protecting his family” on the porch. Jardine’s son and nephew were also injured in the shooting.
No one, he said, intended to kill anyone by firing their guns.
The judge disagreed.
“The intent goes where the bullet goes,” said McCloskey. “The intent is established by producing the gun, pointing the gun, and pulling the trigger.”
He said it would be up to a jury or judge later on to determine whether or not the men were acting in self defense. At this preliminary stage, he said, prosecutors provided enough evidence to uphold a third-degree murder charge.
Prosecutors plan to address charges against a fifth person, Jihad Gray, who had been charged with the shooting at a hearing next week.
A sixth person, Christopher Battle, 24, remains at-large.
After the hearing, the families of the victims struggled to make sense of what they had just watched — friends killing friends.
“It’s really hard to digest,” said Troy Harris, whose son, Azir, was killed. “It was shocking. It was life changing to us. … This domino effect can hurt generations and generations.”
“I still don’t even get it,” said Markeisha Manigault, the mother to Zahir Wylie. “I don’t understand why … my son lost his life. It was just unnecessary.”
Family and friends gather for a balloon release in memory of Zahir Wylie at the Papa Playground on July 8, 2025.
The Philadelphia area will become the epicenter of sports this year and host major events, including the FIFA World Cup, the MLB All-Star game, and the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. Now, another historic event has been added to the schedule: the inaugural Women’s Lacrosse League championship.
The event will take place during the Professional Lacrosse League’s homecoming weekend for the Philadelphia Waterdogs on Aug. 14-16 at Subaru Park in Chester.
“We’re thrilled to return to Philadelphia at Subaru Park in 2026, and make history when we crown the first WLL Champions,” said PLL cofounder and president Paul Rabil. “Philly fans have fueled some of the most legendary moments in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see their passion for the Waterdogs and the game light up the stadium once again.”
In the championship, the league’s four teams (New York Charging, Boston Guard, Maryland Charm, and California Palms) will compete in the 10-vs.-10 format that debuted during the 2025 WLL All-Star game.
“Hosting both the Premier Lacrosse League and, for the first time, the Women’s Lacrosse League at Subaru Park is a powerful moment for our venue and for the region’s lacrosse fans,” said Union president Tim McDermott. “This weekend will reflect our commitment to showcasing elite competition at our best-in-class facility and creating unforgettable experiences for all who step foot in Subaru Park.”
Before the regular season begins on May 15 in Rhode Island, all four WLL teams, and the top four PLL teams, also will play in the 2026 Championship Series from Feb. 27 to March 8 at The St. James in Springfield, Va. The competing PLL teams are the New York Atlas, Carolina Chaos, Denver Outlaws and California Redwoods.
They will compete in the Olympic Sixes game format, which is set to return to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Fans can purchase presale tickets for the Championship Series online.
The main topics at the end-of-year news conference Thursday afternoon at the NovaCare Complex mainly centered on why Kevin Patullo was no longer the offensive coordinator of the Eagles, what Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman wanted in his replacement, and the evolution of the team’s offense.
But two additional questions during the 24-minute session will have an impact on that next coordinator and the Eagles overall.
A.J. Brown’s future in Philadelphia is a major offseason storyline, as is Lane Johnson’s future playing football in general.
Brown’s frustrations this season and last have been well-documented. The star receiver expressed his frustrations with the offense and his involvement in it via cryptic social media posts, on a video game livestream, and in media interviews. He declined to make himself available to the media after the Eagles’ postseason exit, both postgame and the following day as the team cleared its lockers.
Would Roseman be open to trading Brown, or is that a nonstarter?
“It is hard to find great players in the NFL, and A.J. is a great player,” Roseman said. “I think from my perspective, that’s what we’re going out and looking for, when we go out here in free agency and in the draft, is trying to find great players who love football, and he’s that guy. So that would be my answer.”
It was not a yes, and it was not a no. Reading between the lines, trading Brown would require the Eagles to get a haul in return.
A.J. Brown’s unhappiness was apparent during the 2026 season.
There also are salary cap implications.
Brown signed a three-year extension in 2024 that carries through the 2029 season. If the Eagles traded Brown before June 1, they would take on a dead cap hit of $43.5 million. Keeping Brown would mean a $23.4 million hit. Trading him would offer cap savings in 2027 and beyond. The Eagles have been open to taking on dead cap in the past, and Roseman has been a savant at gaming the NFL’s salary cap system to the Eagles’ advantage.
Johnson’s future also is a big factor in the cap math next season and beyond. The future Hall of Fame right tackle missed the final seven regular-season games as well as Sunday’s playoff loss with a Lisfranc injury in his right foot. Johnson has talked publicly last season and before this season about his career timeline.
“My goal is to play well throughout my middle to maybe my upper 30s,” Johnson, who will be 36 in May, said last March. “I love the challenge of being an older player and the routine you got to keep up with.”
Lane Johnson’s injury-related absence in 2025 had a material effect on the offense’s production.
That was, however, before he suffered another injury. Johnson, like Brown, was not available to reporters as the season wrapped.
Did he give any indication to Roseman whether he’ll be back?
“I think all those conversations that we have with our players are between us, and anything they’re doing — I’m not saying that negatively or positively — but anyone you ask about, I think that’s their business to discuss,” Roseman said. “Obviously, you’re talking about a Hall of Fame player who has been a huge, huge part of any of our success we’ve had. And when you watch him play, he’s still playing at an elite level.”
Not a yes. Not a no.
The ‘natural arc’
The futures of those Eagles stars are pivotal because their status impacts how the Eagles approach free agency and the draft. They also make up a large chunk of the team’s high-priced offense.
The Eagles are at an interesting point in the state of their roster. They have an aging and expensive offense that is underperforming relative to its cost and a young and inexpensive defense. That will change soon. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis are in line for extensions. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are right behind them. The Eagles need to improve at edge rusher and have other holes to fill.
Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni will have to balance the team’s roster needs with financial pragmatism.
“As you get better, you have a natural arc of the team, and I think that, when you look at our team, we drafted a lot of offensive players, we re-signed a lot of offensive players,” Roseman said when asked if the team had the resources to keep the players it wants to. “We drafted a lot of defensive guys that were young and on rookie contracts. There’s natural transition in what we do … in terms of where you’re paying your guys, which side of the ball you’re paying your guys who are coming up.
“The important thing for us is there are players we can’t lose — obviously, we’re going to do what’s best for us … but within reason — and that we want to keep around here because they’re really good players, homegrown players that are really good people, that are part of our core. With that, you’re going to have to make sacrifices. That’s on me to make sure the sacrifices we make are filled in with really good players again.”
“If it doesn’t end with confetti falling on our head, I don’t feel like it’s good enough,” he added. “I know we’re not going to win the Super Bowl every year. I think I know that from a broad perspective, but I believe we can. I go into every offseason thinking we’re going to do whatever it takes to win a Super Bowl and when we fall short I look at myself. I look at the things that I could have done different and I look to improve.”
It was not Roseman’s best offseason coming off last year’s Super Bowl. The Eagles did not get great production from their 2025 draft class, though they also had a roster without many openings. It’s worth noting that their first two picks in 2024 were All-Pro selections this season, and the jury is still out on their first two picks from the most recent drafts. They did not, however, make adequate upgrades on the edge and twice had to lure players off their couches to join the team before being forced to use a draft pick to acquire Jaelan Phillips. They don’t have obvious answers for what’s next for an aging and declining offensive line.
They need to get younger and cheaper at some positions, but they also have the talent to try to push for another championship. Finding the next offensive coordinator is a big part of that, but roster construction is critical. Roseman’s offseason task is to balance it all.
“You can do whatever it takes to win now and still build for the future and still have those parallel paths,” he said. “I just don’t want it to get confused that we can’t do whatever it takes to build a championship-caliber team next year and also continue to have really good players on this team for the future.”
