In the last several weeks of Sahmya Heaven Garcia’s young life, she sought a protective order against a former boyfriend who had become her stalker.
Despite her vigilance, as she walked to work from her South Philadelphia apartment on the morning of November 8, 2022, Garcia’s stalker gunned her down on a street corner, shooting her 11 times with what authorities said was a Glock-styled ghost gun — a self-assembled firearm often sold and purchased online. She was 20 years old.
Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health (Devereux) has had a long history of complaints filed against them detailing issues of sexual assault, negligence and abuse. Within the past twenty-five years over forty former Devereux patients have come forward with stories detailing the abuse they endured whilst in Devereux’s care.
Ghost guns, first invented in the late 1980’s, have become an epidemic across the United States. The do-it-yourself, at home kits allow individuals to buy and assemble guns with no background checks or regulations on how many someone can buy. Ghost guns became popular amongst gun-traffickers and repeated offenders since ghost guns do not have serial numbers, and are virtually untraceable.
Suffering from a head injury could change quite a few things about your everyday life. You may endure symptoms like headaches, nausea or vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, or loss of balance. The best way to prove a traumatic brain injury when the physical scans appear normal is to illustrate the observable behavior a person exhibits after the incident. Witnesses to the incident or witnesses who observed the victim post-incident can often shed light on this and corroborate some of the symptoms of which the victim may complain.
A decision made in one of our cases involving Plaintiff Cameron Dean, in the matter of Brown v. End Zone Inc., changed the legal understanding of liability for landlords out of possession. A landlord “out of possession” is a landlord who has leased property and has not “maintained control over the premises” in question. Cf. Juarbe v. Philadelphia, 431 A.2d 1073, 1081 (Pa. Super. 1980). For example, a landlord out of possession could be a private individual who rents a single family home to a tenant.
In March 2011, a 14-year-old girl went to her local shopping mall with her best friend. They soon met up with a boy she had met at the outpatient mental health program she had begun attending. He led her away from her friend, into the parking lot and grounds area of the mall, where he physically assaulted and raped her for 45-60 minutes. She continually screamed and cried out for help throughout the attack, but no mall or security personnel discovered or reacted to the danger. None attempted to warn others, stop the attack, intervene, assist or protect her from being harmed.
Dancer D’Anna Brown suffered severe, permanent, and catastrophic injuries to her face after Philadelphia’s Club Onyx over-served alcohol to their patrons past 2AM, resulting in a massive brawl which included bottles thrown, brass poles wielded, and punches delivered. Despite previous incidents and criminal activity at this location and in its vicinity, Club Onyx failed to properly train their security personnel, bartenders, or dancers on how to prevent or handle dangerous conditions like that of August 10, 2014.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The owner of a North Philadelphia gas station says he took security measures into his own hands to keep his customers and employees safe.
Neil Patel hired a private security company, Pennsylvania State Agents, to patrol his KARCO gas station at Broad and Clearfield streets three weeks ago, and now he has a daily armed presence with at least two agents on the premise nightly.
“We’re Pennsylvania State Agents and we’re not security. Basically, what we do is security details when the public calls upon us when the police can’t be there,” explained Andre Boyer.
Boyer said when they first arrived to the gas station people took notice immediately.
Corliss Jackson, whose son was killed while leaving a Philadelphia gas station, and her attorney David Thiruselvam relay the urgency of crime at gas stations and why they have decided to take the issue to court.
Carjackings at Philadelphia gas stations have increased by more than 300% this year compared to 2021, according to a report.
“You got to arm yourself. It’s dangerous out here. It’s wild,” Philadelphia resident Melvin Dunn told WPVI.
There have been 30 armed carjackings at Philadelphia gas stations as of mid-November compared to seven in 2021, according to the news outlet. That marks a nearly 330% increase of such incidents.
Just after 9:30 a.m on March 22, Rasheen Naseeb Robinson pulled his car into the Liberty gas station in East Kensington and stopped in its convenience store. When Robinson, 22, headed back to his car, a gunman shot him five times, including once in the head. He died minutes later.
On August 14, 2021, at about 5 a.m., Alexander Vincent Ott, 29, stopped at the Gulf station in Wynnefield, a leafy neighborhood just inside the city’s western border. Ott wanted to gas up before completing the half-hour drive to his girlfriend’s home in the city’s Northeast section, his mother said. But while Ott was pumping gas, a gunman shot him multiple times in the back, killing him instantly.
The unsolved murders of Robinson and Ott are among 9 killings committed at Philadelphia gas stations in 2021 and so far this year. That’s up from zero such homicides in 2018, 2019, and 2020, police said.