A man who attempted to quell a domestic dispute Sunday was struck in the leg by a bullet that ricocheted off the pavement, police said.
John Fasulo, 46, and his wife were fighting outside their home on Mountain Street near 10th around 2 a.m., reports stated. When neighbor James Primavera attempted to break up the altercation, Fasulo fired his gun into the pavement, police said. One of the bullets ricocheted and struck the 39-year-old Primavera in the left shin.
The victim, from Watkins Street near Ninth, refused to be taken to the hospital, so medics treated him at the scene, police said.
Fasulo was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses.
Man injured with bat
A 51-year-old woman allegedly hit her 52-year-old husband several times in the head with a baseball bat while he lay in bed Saturday night, police said.
Officers arrived at the home on the 1700 block of Federal Street around 8:15 p.m. and found the victim, who had suffered severe lacerations to his head. The man was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, police said.
At press time, it was unclear whether the woman had been charged in the incident.
Abducted and assaulted
A man in his 40s approached a 26-year-old female walking on the 200 block of Porter Street Saturday night and forced her into his car, where he then fondled her, police said.
The stranger drove up to the woman in a gray or silver SUV around 10:45 p.m., reports stated. He then got out of the car and forced the victim back inside, said Sgt. Steve Biello of South Detective Division.
After automatically locking the car doors, the abductor drove off with the woman screaming and pleading to be set free, Biello said.
The victim told police the culprit fondled her, but that he did not use a weapon in the attack.
After somehow managing to reach the SUV’s unlock button, the woman jumped out of the vehicle, said Biello.
South Detectives notified the Special Victims Unit, which is investigating the case.
No ecstasy in jail sentence
U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois last Thursday sentenced a fashion-model booking agent to 78 months in prison and supervised release for six years for operating an ecstasy lab in South Philly. The judge also fined the agent $2,000.
Last October, narcotics agents arrested Martin Fisher, 29, of Somerdale, N.J., while he was trying to enter an ecstasy lab inside a second-floor apartment on Emily Street near Ninth, said police. Fisher was arraigned Nov. 1 and released on $75,000 bail pending his trial, said Rich Manieri, spokesperson for the U.S.
Accused of illegal drug barter
Last Thursday, a former South Philly pharmacist was charged in federal court with trading prescription drugs for computers, CD players, VCRs and DVDs.
Kevin Lynch, 38, of Glassboro, N.J., is charged with three counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and one count of dealing in counterfeit obligations, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Authorities allege the registered pharmacist distributed approximately 200,000 Percocet, 100 gallons of Tussionex, 250,000 Xanax pills and 200 gallons of Promethazine with codeine.
Lynch operated the Moore Street Pharmacy at 1732 S. Broad St. from 1997 to 1998. During that time, he paid at least three employees with drugs instead of cash, the government alleges.
Two former pharmacy employees, James Amendola, 58, of Sheridan Street near Oregon Avenue, and Anthony Soli, 31, of Carlisle Street near McKean, were charged as codefendants. A fourth defendant, Donna Clayton, 41, of Sherwood Road near Haverford Avenue, traded the stolen equipment for drugs, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Cop crashes into building
A Fourth District officer crashed his cruiser into an abandoned building while on the hunt for a stolen dirt bike, police said.
The bizarre chain of events occurred Monday around 5 p.m. on the 1700 block of South Fourth Street, said Sgt. Steve Biello of South Detectives.
Biello said a man on a blue and white dirt bike rode directly into the path of the police cruiser, causing the officer to swerve and crash into the abandoned building.
There were no injuries in the incident, and police said the dirt bike involved in the accident was not the stolen bike.
Newborn left for dead
It was just another workday in the hot sun for the landscaper from Newtown Square, who was pruning trees at Commerce Bank on the 2100 block of South Broad Street.
Until he would unwittingly save the life of a newborn girl.
In his line of work, Rodrigo Sandoval Nunez sees plenty of black plastic trash bags. But this one was different. Something inside this one was moving, Nunez told the Review an hour after the 9:30 a.m. discovery Monday.
When he opened the bag, he beheld the astonishing contents — a newborn girl, with umbilical cord still attached, crying, recounted Nunez.
The Mayfield Gardens Landscape Contractors employee, who doesn’t speak or understand much English, held out his hands barely a foot apart to describe the baby’s size.
Nunez said he immediately summoned his boss, who ran inside and alerted the bank manager, who in turn called police.
Paramedics arrived and whisked the baby off to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Nurses have dubbed the infant "Tamara Doe." Yesterday, she was in fair condition, according to Police Public Affairs.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Had it not been for Nunez, the child surely would have suffocated to death in the hand-tied plastic bag, authorities said.
As of yesterday, Special Victims detectives, with the aid of other law-enforcement officials, were still searching for the person — presumably the baby’s mother — who threw out her offspring like yesterday’s garbage.
After the disturbing discovery, a Commerce Bank teller, a mother herself, said she was traumatized and wanted to go home.
"How could any mother do that? Why didn’t she drop it off on a door step or give it to a hospital?" she said.
Pennsylvania is one of just a few states that does not have a Safe Haven Law allowing mothers to drop off unwanted babies at hospitals or other designated sites without facing prosecution.
That could change. State Rep. Bill Keller has pushed for a Safe Haven law in Pennsylvania. The measure passed the House and is stalled in the Senate.
In a bitter irony Monday, a woman in her 20s approached a reporter at the scene of the shocking discovery and wanted to know whom she could talk to about adopting the baby. The woman said she had been trying to have a child of her own for years, with no success.
Liza Rodriguez, communications director for the city’s Department of Human Services, said the baby will be released into the agency’s custody. She will be placed with one of the families already in DHS’ adoption pool, Rodriguez said.
