Carjackers who hit, killed 3 still on run
PHILADELPHIA -- Two carjackers who fled after ramming a stolen SUV into a family selling fruit for their church, killing three young siblings, were still on the run Saturday as the reward for their capture topped $100,000.
Keisha Williams, 34, remained in critical condition at Temple University Hospital. Her slain children were identified as Keiearra Williams, 15, Thomas Reed, 10, and Terrence Moore, 7.
The two carjackers fled on foot after crashing the stolen car Friday morning at a North Philadelphia intersection. They had first carjacked a real estate agent at gunpoint and later forced her into the back seat of her SUV, authorities said.
The 45-year-old agent also was hospitalized afterward, as was a 65-year-old woman helping the family with the fruit stand. Their names weren't being released, and their conditions weren't immediately available Saturday.
The reward for the carjackers' arrests had reached $110,000 Saturday, after contributions from the city and the Fraternal Order of Police.
Guns, computer seized at patient's home
PHILADELPHIA -- Authorities found two more guns at the home of a man accused of fatally shooting his caseworker and grazing his psychiatrist in suburban Philadelphia before the doctor pulled out his own weapon and fired back.
The weapons and a computer were seized from Richard Plotts' home in Clifton Heights, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said Saturday.
Authorities plan to arraign Plotts on a murder charge after he awakens at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery late Thursday. He was sedated and under guard Saturday.
Plotts, 49, was at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital for an appointment earlier Thursday when he began ranting about its gun ban and then drew a gun from his waistband and shot his caseworker, 53-year-old Theresa Hunt, psychiatrist Lee Silverman told police.
Silverman crouched behind a chair, pulled out his own weapon and fired back, striking Plotts several times, authorities said.
Plotts had 39 unspent bullets on him when he was wrestled to the ground, police said. Two guns also were found at the scene, including a revolver that police say Plotts used to kill Hunt.
'Pot' increasing Denver's young homeless
DENVER -- Officials at some Denver homeless shelters say the legalization of marijuana has contributed to an increase in the number of younger people living on the city's streets.
One organization dealing with the increase is Urban Peak, which provides food, shelter and other services to homeless people ages 15 to 24 in Denver and Colorado Springs.
"Of the new kids we're seeing, the majority are saying they're here because of the weed," deputy director Kendall Rames told The Denver Post. "They're traveling through. It is very unfortunate."
The Salvation Army's single men's shelter in Denver has been serving more homeless this summer, and officials have noted an increase in the number of 18- to 25-year-olds there.
The shelter housed an average of 225 each night last summer, but this summer it's averaging 300 people per night. About a quarter of the increase was related to marijuana, including people who moved hoping to find work in the marijuana industry, said Murray Flagg, divisional social services secretary for the Salvation Army's Intermountain Division.
At the St. Francis Center, a daytime homeless shelter, "pot" is the second most frequently volunteered reason for the homeless outsiders being in Colorado, after looking for work.
Small plane collides with truck on road
RENO, Nev. -- A small airplane with engine trouble struck a pickup during an emergency landing on a Nevada highway Saturday morning, authorities said.
At least two people were aboard the plane and two people were in the truck when the collision occurred about 9 a.m. on a rural, two-lane section of Nevada 445 about 20 miles north of Reno, Nevada Highway Patrol Lt. Kevin Honea said.
All four escaped with minor injuries, Honea said.
The truck was heading north on the 40-mile-long highway, which links the Reno area and a desert lake.
The plane, an experimental Thunder Mustang made and flown by Frederick Roscher, was forced to land on the highway after losing power after it left Reno Stead Airport en route for South Dakota, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.
The names of the other three people were not immediately released.
The crash is under investigation by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.
A Section on 07/27/2014