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A Settlement Music School teacher was killed in a head-on collision last Thursday in Gloucester Township, New Jersey.
Anthony "Tony" Simmons, 38, of Woodbury, N.J., taught viola and violin at the school’s main campus at 416 Queen St. for six years. He also taught at Settlement branches in Jenkintown, the Northeast and Germantown, said Settlement Executive Director Bob Capanna.
Simmons was heading south on Route 42 near the Blackwood-Clementon exit when a northbound driver lost control of her 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, crossed a grassy median and slammed into the victim’s 2003 Honda Civic, said New Jersey State Police Trooper Stephen Jones.
Simmons was pronounced dead at the scene after the 7 a.m. incident.
The driver of the Mitsubishi, Janelle Young-Matias, 27, of Williamstown, and her passenger, Charles Taylor, 32, from Queens Hill, N.Y., were taken to Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Washington Township and treated for minor injuries, Jones said.
The southbound lanes of Route 42 were closed for two hours after the crash, which remains under investigation.
In addition to teaching at the prestigious Settlement, Simmons instructed at the Wilmington Music School and was the violist for Serafin String Quartet and new music ensemble Relache. A memorial service was held in Wilmington yesterday; a free memorial concert, featuring performances by Settlement colleagues and students, will be held 7 p.m. March 15 at the school.
The victim’s wife, Marka Kasker Simmons, is also a viola and violin teacher at Settlement’s Queen Village location and coordinates the school’s adult chamber music program. She was unavailable for comment this week.
"The thing about Tony that sort of distinguished him from a lot of musicians and maybe a lot of teachers is that he was a very unassuming guy — very modest, very quiet, a guy who was very interested in other people," said Capanna.
The director called Simmons a "terrific teacher," citing that his focus was on student needs and advancing their potential. "As a consequence, he had a very remarkable success with students and also a very close bond with his students," the director noted.
Assault went beyond trash talk
A family of four was arrested Tuesday after they allegedly beat up two city sanitation workers, sending the victims to the hospital, police said.
The suspects, from the 1700 block of South 19th Street, started cursing and threatening the workers because they refused to wait for them to bring out their trash around 11:35 a.m., said Officer Sheila Smith of the Police Public Affairs Unit.
The four caught up with the truck on the 1900 block of Watkins Street, where they began punching and kicking the two victims and assaulting them with garbage cans, Smith said.
One of the victims, a 20-year-old man from Southwest Philly, suffered a busted lip, facial bruises and swelling. His 45-year-old coworker from North Philly suffered facial cuts, a concussion and possible internal injuries, police said. Both men were taken to Graduate Hospital.
Eugene Dykes, 37; his wife LaTonya Dykes, 37; and their sons, Norman Cutright, 22; and Eugene Dykes Jr., 18, were charged with aggravated and simple assault, terroristic threats, conspiracy, reckless endangerment and other offenses.
Shot by female stranger
Seventeenth District police found a man gunned down shortly before 4 p.m. Friday on the 1500 block of South 19th Street.
The 39-year-old victim identified his shooter as a woman but claimed he didn’t know her, said Detective Joe Chiaro of South Detective Division. The victim had been shot once in his back. Police took him to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was in stable condition.
Detectives recovered no ballistics evidence at the scene, and the incident is still under investigation, said Chiaro.
To report information, call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.
Couple last seen on South ![](http://ftp.gmnews.com/images/media.southphillyreview.com/images/spr-3046-police3.jpg")
Police are asking the public’s help in locating a missing man and woman who were last seen leaving a South Street restaurant on Feb. 19.
Detectives identified the couple as Richard Petrone Jr., 35, of the 1600 block of Snyder Avenue, and Danielle Imbo, 34, of Mount Laurel, N.J.
Petrone and Imbo had met friends for drinks at Abilene’s on the 500 block of South Street, said Sgt. Tim Cooney of South Detectives. The couple left the establishment around 11:30-11:45 p.m., ahead of their friends, added the sergeant.
The pair had been traveling in Petrone’s 2001 four-door Dodge Dakota pickup, Cooney said. The vehicle is black and silver with Pennsylvania tag YFH2319.
Imbo has a 22-month-old son and Petrone has a teenage daughter, said the sergeant. Both also held down steady jobs.
To report information, call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.
Boyfriend beaten and bitten
Police arrested a woman after she allegedly beat her boyfriend with a crowbar and bit him numerous times during an argument last Thursday.
The suspect reached for a crowbar and began beating her 40-year-old beau about his body during a spat at 8:30 p.m. inside the couple’s home on the 1600 block of Bainbridge Street, said Inspector Bill Colarulo of the Police Public Affairs Unit.
The woman also bit the victim several times on his right arm, according to police. He was treated and released from Graduate Hospital.
Investigators charged Debbie McClendone, 48, with possession of an instrument of crime, aggravated and simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Nabbed for packing knuckles
A local man was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport after a security scan of his bag turned up a pair of brass knuckles, police said.
A Transportation Security Administration screener for Terminal B spotted the device during an X-ray screening of the suspect’s bag around 9 p.m. Friday, said Inspector Bill Colarulo of the Police Public Affairs Unit.
Philadelphia police were called to the scene and confiscated the brass knuckles.
Richard Burkeholder, 27, of the 400 block of Greenwich Street, was charged with possession of a prohibitive offensive weapon, said Colarulo.
Murder suspect still on the loose ![](http://ftp.gmnews.com/images/media.southphillyreview.com/images/spr-3046-police1.jpg")
The Homicide Fugitive Squad continues to seek a local man who allegedly shot a man to death and wounded a woman over a dispute involving a double-parked car in Southwest Philly last summer.
Andre Greene, 32, of the 1800 block of South Ringgold Street, has been a fugitive since June 12, when he allegedly ambushed the couple on the 5400 block of Warrington Avenue, said Detective John Keen of the Homicide Fugitive Squad.
In recent weeks, Greene has been spotted on the 2200 block of Fitzwater Street, added the detective.
Twelfth District police responding to a report of gunfire shortly after midnight June 12 found Craig Dunston, 29, fighting for his life on the sidewalk. He had been shot in his head, chest and arm, police said. Tahara Wesley, 25, suffered gunshot wounds to her right leg and buttocks.
To report information, call the Homicide Fugitive Squad at 215-686-3068/3084.
City sued for toddler’s death
Attorneys for the estate of murdered toddler Porchia Bennett filed a lawsuit in federal court last week blaming the city for the 3-year-old’s death and seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
The City of Philadelphia and the Department of Human Services are named in the suit. Representatives from the Office of the City Solicitor and DHS would not comment due to the pending litigation.
The victim’s grandmother requested the federal lawsuit, said Thomas Bruno of Abramson & Denenberg P.C., administrator of Bennett’s estate.
The lawsuit charges that city officials created the danger that led to the toddler’s death on Aug. 17, 2003, by stopping supervision of what had been an abusive family situation, according to a copy of the suit obtained by the Review.
Three years before Porchia Bennett was born, the city cited her mother, Tiffany Bennett, for alleged child abuse. A judge ordered DHS social workers to ensure her children got the proper care.
By 1999, Tiffany Bennett and her children had gone missing from a city shelter. When they couldn’t be located, the city closed its case, the suit said. Porchia was born the next year.
In summer 2002, Bennett turned Porchia and her three sisters — Alexus, Aliyaha and Priscilla — over to caregivers Jerry Chambers and girlfriend Candice Geiger, who shared an apartment at 1705 S. Fifth St.
Days before Porchia Bennett’s death, an abuse report had been filed with the city hotline. A DHS social worker waited three days before checking the home. Finding no one home, the worker posted a note on the door.
The next day, the toddler’s lifeless body was found wedged between a mattress in Chambers’ squalid apartment. According to the suit, she had been beaten with a belt and an extension cord.
Alexus, 10 at the time; Aliyaha, who was 6; and Priscilla, then 4, were found battered and bruised inside the residence.
Chambers, then 31, and Geiger, then 18, were charged with Porchia’s murder and are scheduled to stand trial April 11.
Porchia’s parents, Tiffany Bennett and Lester Trapp, are listed as beneficiaries of her estate, but any of the toddler’s heirs could make claims should the case be won, said Bruno.
Tiffany Bennett, 27 at the time of Porchia’s death, also will stand trial April 11 for four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Bruno said the city could countersue Bennett if officials maintain she was somehow responsible for her child’s abuse and death.
