Falls police: Bank robbery suspect nabbed after recognized in newspaper photo

Posted: Sunday, April 28, 2013

Something a little too familiar about the bank robbery suspect photo caught her eye.

The same thing happened two weeks later, after a second photo of a similar-looking bank robber appeared in the newspaper. Only the second time, she not only recognized the suspect’s face, but the outfit he wore, including a multicolored knit cap.

Police now believe that a 56-year-old Trenton man is responsible for at least one bank robbery in Falls and an attempted bank robbery in Morrisville over a two-week period. Last week, the U.S. Marshals took Michael Riccitiello, 56, into custody outside his Oakland Street home.

Falls police have filed an arrest warrant charging Riccitiello with the March 23 robbery of a TD bank in the 300 block of West Trenton Avenue, and the April 13 attempted robbery of a Bank of America in the first unit block of East Trenton Avenue in Morrisville.  

Bank surveillance of Michael Riccitello

Falls police say that Riccitiello entered the TD bank shortly before 10 a.m. on March 23 and stood at the transaction table where he appeared to be writing out a bank slip. He then turned and walked toward a teller station.

When he reached the counter he told the woman to give him all her $50 and $100 bills, according to the affidavit.

“Don’t hit the alarm or I’ll shoot,” he said, according to police. Riccitiello did not display a weapon, police said.

The teller took an undisclosed amount of $50 and $100 bills and handed them to the suspect, and he left the bank and was last seen walking toward West Trenton Avenue. Police noted that he didn’t wear gloves and kept his hands on what appeared to be a bank slip that he was possibly reading from, according to the affidavit.

On April 13, police believe Riccitello entered a Bank of America shortly before noon where he demanded $50 and $100 bills from the teller. He behaved as if he had a gun in his pocket, police said.

But this time the teller backed away from the glass partition and signaled to her manager to push the panic button. The man ran away empty-handed.

After each robbery police released information, including surveillance photos, of the suspects to the media. Four days after the April 13 robbery attempt, Trenton police contacted Falls police to say that someone came forward with information about a possible suspect, according to the affidavit.

Falls Detective Dennis O’Connell, who headed the investigation, interviewed the person who claimed to know Riccitiello and recognized him from the photos. The woman told police she had seen Riccitiello wearing the same clothing that the suspect wore during the April 13 robbery attempt.

In the last month, she told police, Riccitiello bragged about robbing a bank with a guy named Joe.

The photos of the suspects in the Falls bank robbery and one attempted Morrisville bank robbery and booking photos of Riccitiello appear consistent, according to the affidavit.

Bank surveillance of Riccitiello on April 13

In a recorded phone call on April 19, Riccitiello made several statements regarding his involvement in two bank robberies and specifically mentions the Bank of America, according to the affidavit. He also acknowledged in the phone conversation that it was his photo in the newspaper associated with the robbery, police said.

Riccitello has waived extradition to Pennsylvania, which will allow him to be brought across the river to be arraigned on robbery and theft charges, O’Connell said.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia;

Police: Suicide attempt leads to criminal charges for Bristol man

Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Bristol man who survived a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head is now facing criminal charges, police said.

John Capecci, 56, was arraigned Tuesday before Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau Sr. on charges of carrying a firearm without a license, possessing a weapon and recklessly endangering another person in connection with a Feb. 15 alleged suicide attempt. He was released on $40,000 unsecured bail.

Shortly before 8 p.m. that day, Bristol police responded to a call of a man armed with a gun threatening suicide outside the 200 block of Madison Street near where it meets Farragut Avenue and Pond Street in the borough.

When police arrived, they found that Capecci had fired three rounds inside his car. After Capecci exited the car, police saw him standing near a green truck with the semi-automatic gun in his hand and a large amount of blood on his shirt, according to a probable cause affidavit.

At the time, police said that Capecci shot himself in the temple with a small-caliber handgun.

He eventually put down the gun, they said, and was taken to Aria Health Torresdale campus.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Police: Three men arrested after holding adults, kids hostage in Bristol Township

Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2013

A bank customer shared a terrifying story with a teller on Monday morning.

Six family members and friends — including three girls under age 5 — were being held by two kidnappers with guns at his apartment, the customer said. If he didn’t withdraw $80,000, the amount of a life insurance policy award that he recently received, they would be harmed, he said.

Hours later, though, the two suspected kidnappers were arrested and on Monday night a third man, who police say was the mastermind, was under arrest in the failed kidnapping plot. No one was hurt and an investigation into the incident is continuing, police said.

Bristol Township police say that Orlando McNeil, 38, of Bristol Township, targeted a Bristol Township man — whom he knew as a “hustler” who would have money on him. McNeil — who was recently paroled from state prison, police said — recruited two Philadelphia men, Daesean Smith, 21, and Dennis Redding, 18, to participate in the robbery, police said.

Initially, the three men planned to lure the man to a nearby apartment complex to rob him, but the man refused to leave his apartment in the

Dennis Redding, Daesean Smith, Orlando McNeil

Levittown Trace complex on Ford Road.

So the three suspects drove to the apartment complex where Smith and Redding, armed with guns, burst into the man’s apartment Sunday night, police said. McNeil, who dropped the pair off, allegedly waited outside in a black SUV.

Smith and Redding forced the adults to strip, but then let them put their clothes back on, Bristol Township Police Lt. Terry Hughes said. The pair duct-taped the men, but did not duct-tape the women or children, ages 1, 2 and 4, Hughes said.

The suspects held the seven hostages overnight until the Bristol bank opened Monday morning, Hughes said. The man and his girlfriend went unaccompanied to the bank to withdraw the money, Hughes said.

After the bank representative notified police about the alleged kidnapping plot, Bristol Township police coordinated with neighboring departments in Bristol and Tullytown, and Bucks County sheriffs, Hughes said.

Bristol Township police officers arrived at Levittown Trace in an unmarked car and saw the two suspects, who then ran away, court records show. Police also found the black SUV parked nearby with McNeil in it, according to a probable cause affidavit. All three men were caught after a foot case involving a Bensalem K-9 unit.

Police recovered two handguns they believe the suspects dropped along with a victim’s cell phone and a victim’s driver’s license, according to the affidavit.

After he was in police custody, McNeil told police he intended to rob the man but that he knew nothing about an insurance payout, and he knew nothing about Smith and Redding taking the victim to a bank to get a large sum of money, according to the probable cause.

Smith and Redding were arraigned Monday afternoon before Bristol District Judge Frank Peranteau on seven counts each of kidnapping, robbery, burglary and related charges.

McNeil, who was arraigned Monday night before Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline, faces identical charges as well as simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime. He was sentenced to six to 12 years in state prison in 2005 after he was convicted in Bucks County court of robbery and aggravated assault, according to online court records.

All three men were sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million apiece.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia;

Police: Feasterville murder victim planned to marry later this month

Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2013 

Violeta Isackov was set to marry on April 28. She had an appointment for a final fitting of her light rose-colored wedding dress Thursday night.

But the 45-year-old Northampton resident never showed, never even made it out of her car. She was shot dead in the parking lot of the Feasterville dress shop, allegedly by ex-husband Kenneth Philipp.

Philipp, who was shot dead less than an hour later, had been scheduled to appear before a Bucks County judge on April 29 for a parole violation related to a protection from abuse order that Isackov had against him.

Kenneth Philipp

One day after police say Philipp killed Isackov before he was shot and killed by a Northampton police officer during a confrontation a few miles away, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler could not say definitively if jealousy motivated the 50-year-old Feasterville man.   

Philipp was released from Bucks County prison on April 2 -- where he had been locked up since November for violating a protection from abuse order barring contact with Isackov -- after posting 10 percent of his $100,000 bail on the civil contempt charge, according to the county’s prothonotary office.

A preliminary investigation by Bucks County Detectives has found that Philipp, of Lillian Street, followed his ex-wife as she pulled into the parking lot of the Bustleton Avenue shop around 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

Before Isackov could put the car in park, Philipp rammed the rear of her Nissan, trapping her inside, Heckler said.

He then got out of his Lincoln Town Car and walked to the driver’s side window where he pumped three shotgun shells into her chest while Isackov’s 16-year-old daughter was in the passenger seat, Heckler said.

Her daughter, whose father is not Philipp, slightly injured her hand after she was hit with birdshot as she tried to protect her mother by pulling her into the passenger seat with her, Heckler said. She was treated and released from St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown.

After killing his ex, Philipp drove to Northampton, where a patrol officer spotted the suspect's car. The officer, who has not been identified, called for backup and started following the Town Car with his lights and sirens off.

Philipp turned onto Buck Road in front of the Pheasant Valley shopping center where he stopped his car, got out and fired three shotgun blasts at the officer, who was struck in the chest but not seriously injured because he was wearing a protective vest.

As Philipp got back into his car, the officer fired off two clips, hitting Philipp in the head, Heckler said. The shooting remains under investigation and Heckler expects a final report to be issued within a week. The officer who shot Philipp was treated and released at St. Mary and he has been placed on administrative leave until the DA’s report is finished.

The Bucks County coroner performed autopsies on Saturday. Philipp died of four gunshot wounds: two to the head and two to the chest; and Isackov died of three shotgun wounds to her left arm and chest, Coroner Dr. Joseph Campbell said.

"Slap on the Wrist"

The couple was well known to Northampton police, said Northampton Police Lt. Mike Clark, who described the police contacts with the two as “a little bit of everything.”

Court records show that Philipp had a record of aggravated and simple assault and terroristic threat arrests dating to 2005, but he was never convicted of those charges. His first wife also had a protection from abuse order against him, according to court records.

Isackov and her two daughters testified to Philipp’s version of events at his 2010 trial on charges that he assaulted four police officers during a confrontation at the couple’s Northampton home.

Philipp claimed that he had accidentally dropped a glass while officers charged at him during the incident. Police contended that Philipp was drunk and broke a glass and made an “aggressive” move toward the officers and then kicked them. The officers were responding to an abandoned 911 call at the home.

Philipp was found not guilty of aggravated and simple assault charges, but convicted of resisting arrest. He was sentenced to two years probation, according to court records.

Most recently, Isackov had been cooperating with prosecutors, Heckler said.

“She genuinely was afraid,” he said.

Northampton police recently filed charges against Philipp after he was caught outside Isackov’s West Lynford Road home on Nov. 1. Police learned Isackov had an active protection from abuse order against Philipp according to court records, and took him into custody. They later found a 6-inch knife with an orange blade on the passenger seat of his car and scratches with an orange stains on several doors and windows of the home , according to a probable cause affidavit.

Court records show a county judge granted Isackov a protection order in May 2011 and it was continued in December. The couple’s divorce was finalized last October.

On Feb. 28, Philipp pleaded guilty in Bucks County court to possession of an instrument of crime, defiant trespassing and loitering and prowling in connection with the Nov. 1 arrest.

He was also charged with terroristic threats and stalking, but the district attorney declined to prosecute those charges, records show. Heckler said his office didn’t pursue the charges because they didn’t have enough evidence.

“Terrorist threats is a tough charge,” the DA added. “It’s a charge that has been blown way out of what people who drafted the crimes code intended.”

Bucks County Judge Wallace Bateman sentenced Philipp to three years probation, Heckler said (though court records list three months probation), and ordered him to seek alcohol treatment and have no contact with Isackov, according to court records.

But, the most recent case violated Philipp's 2010 probation and on April 1 he appeared before Bateman again for a probation violation hearing where he was sentenced to 23 months in prison, but given time served and immediately paroled.

One aspect of the case that Heckler wants answered is how Philipp managed to get the shotgun he used to kill Isackov and fire on police.

Individuals with active protection from abuse orders are court-ordered to surrender firearms. A PFA order also would show up in a criminal background check required to buy a firearm from a licensed firearms dealer, according to the Pennsylvania State police. Pennsylvania does not require background checks for private sales of shotguns and rifles.

The director of the county’s domestic violence program on Friday said she wants to see the courts more thoroughly and carefully investigate the circumstances in play when sentencing individuals for violating protection from abuse orders.

“All too often there are circumstances where people who make threats, not only to individuals, but the community as a whole have not gotten maximum sentencing,” said Ifeoma Aduba, executive director of A Woman’s Place, which runs a shelter for battered women. “If someone is violating protection order three times, it’s not a slap on the wrist at that point.”

"A Beautiful Person"

Meanwhile at Elegant Fashion Design on Friday, glass shattered by Philipp’s shotgun blasts littered the parking lot surrounded by orange paint marking police evidence.

“A lot of my friends called me to see if I was OK,” shop owner Irina Bobrovnikova said. “They drove by and saw all the police cars Thursday.”

Bobrovnikova recalled Isackov as a “beautiful person,” who worked hard as a hair stylist at her own salon.

The day before she was murdered, Isackov visited the store with her daughters to show them her wedding dress. Her fiancé was with her, she said.

“Her fiancé wanted to see the dress and she said he couldn’t. She was laughing about it,” she added. “They were very happy together.”

Staff writer George Mattar contributed to this story

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Sister uses Facebook to lead cops to suspect in brother's robbery, assault

Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2013

After a man was robbed and pistol whipped Monday night, his sister used social media to track down a suspect.

While her brother was being treated at the hospital for his injuries, the sister searched Facebook. She learned from her brother that the man’s first name was Eddie, police said.

She found him “tagged” in a photo of a girl she knows. She contacted the girl, who gave her the suspect’s name — Eddie Gilante Gray, 19, of Dolores Lane in Bristol Township.

The woman’s brother later identified Gray as the suspect from the Facebook pictures, which were then forwarded to police, according to court records.

The man was pistol-whipped in the parking lot of the Foxwood Manor apartments in Middletown, police said. He suffered head and facial injuries, they added.

The injured man told police that about 8:30 p.m. he met with a man whom he knew only as Eddie from the Indian Creek basketball courts. He told police that he got into a silver Crown Victoria-style car with Gray inside and another man behind the wheel. Police did not say why they were meeting.

Gray ordered the driver to lock the doors, police said. He then hit the man in the face and head with a black handgun described as similar to a police officer’s firearm, according to police. He then demanded the man hand over his iPhone 4 — valued at $400 — and his wallet containing $150, his identification and house key, police said.

The man also claimed that Gray forced the gun into his mouth and threatened to kill him if he called police.

The man was then kicked out of the car near Ford Road. Gray and the unidentified driver kicked him several times while he was on the ground, and Gray hit him with the gun again before taking off, according to the affidavit.

Police located Gray’s driver’s license information and photo, which was compared with the Facebook pictures, police said. Officers said they visited Gray’s home where a silver Mercury Grand Marquis registered to Gray was parked in front of the house.

Gray was arrested and arraigned Tuesday morning before Penndel District Judge Dan Baranoski on multiple counts of robbery, aggravated and simple assault, terroristic threats and other offenses. He was sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

This case is still an active investigation into the identity of others that may be involved and there is the possibility of additional charges, said Lt. John Michniewicz.

Eddie Gray

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; twitter@jociavaglia

Newtown Ambulance driver charged with driving drunk on the job

Posted: Friday, April 19, 2013

A Philadelphia ambulance driver faces drunken driving charges after he was involved in a minor accident Sunday while transporting a patient on Route 1 in Middletown, police said.

No one was injured, including the patient who was being moved from St. Mary Medical Center to a facility in Montgomery Township for a mental health evaluation, police said.

A police officer spotted two Newtown ambulances and a Newtown Ambulance chief’s SUV with emergency lights activated stopped on the superhighway access road near Neshaminy High School about 4:30 p.m.

When the officer stopped and asked if they needed help, Newtown squad’s Chief of Operations Jeff Stocklos told him that one of his drivers hit the curb and flattened a tire.

Stocklos said he suspected that the driver, Nicholas White, 30, of Tustin Street, was intoxicated, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The police officer said White appeared unsteady on his feet and that he detected an odor of alcohol. When White removed his sunglasses, his eyes appeared bloodshot, the officer said.

When the officer asked White how he hit the curb, he got an unexpected response.

“I’m an alcoholic,” White said, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When the officer asked him how much he had to drink that day, he repeated his first response.

“I’m an alcoholic,” he slurred, according to court documents.

White failed two field sobriety tests: reciting the alphabet and the finger-to-nose test, according to the affidavit. Police took him to St. Mary Medical Center for a blood test. Those results are not available yet, police said.

White was charged by summons with driving under the influence, recklessly endangering another person and careless driving.

White, who had worked for the ambulance company for about two years, was terminated Sunday, Stocklos said on Thursday.

A paramedic who was riding in the back of the ambulance with the patient called the company to report the accident and that something didn’t seem “right” with White, Stocklos said. White, who was on-call along with the paramedic, was brought into work that day to transport the patient.

Newtown Ambulance drug tests employees, and White had never had any disciplinary issues, Stocklos added.

“He has always been a model employee,” he added. “It took everybody totally off guard.”

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Bensalem doctor who treated Boston Marathon wounded: "It's my 9/11 I guess"

Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The foot traffic was nearing its peak in the main medical tent four hours into the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon when everything suddenly shook.

The deafening sound caught everyone inside off guard, including Bensalem resident Dr. Howard Palamarchuk, a podiatrist and professor at the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine. It wasn’t a pop, he said. It was an explosion.

Palamarchuk, 59, was making small talk with runners who stopped in seeking relief for blisters, dehydration and shin splints one block past the finish line at the world’s oldest road race. He was also keeping an eye on nine of his senior sports medicine students who were tending to runners.

Did a gas tank explode? That was his first thought. The second explosion — even closer to the medical tent and followed by a lingering smell of gunpowder — confirmed for Palamarchuk what was happening.

Dr. Howard Palamarchuk

“It was like the second tower getting hit,” he said. “You knew this isn’t an accident.”

For 28 years, Palamarchuk, a former competitive race walker, has been volunteering as part of the Boston Marathon medical staff to care for the feet of marathoners. The trip is the highlight of the sports medical course for Temple students picked to accompany him. They typically treat thousands of runners each year with sports-related complaints.

For all those years, the worst injuries he’d seen were a bad ankle fracture or the woman who last year fractured her hip. More typical are the sore arches and heels, blisters, a stress fracture or dehydration. One year the race was held during a Nor’easter. Another year it was a summer-like 87 degrees.

But on Monday, most of the injuries that Palamarchuk treated involved shrapnel, he said.

Like the woman, maybe 30 years old, with metal scraps embedded in the back of her legs like birdshot, or the young boy, about 13, separated from his parents with an arm injury.

“Can you hear me?” he asked people with suspected ruptured ear drums.

Most shook their heads no, he said.

After the second explosion, as the walking wounded made their way into the medical tent, the rumors swirled like a tornado, Palamarchuk said. Was there another bomb? Did another bomb go off?

“I can only imagine this is what 9/11 was like,” he said.

But inside the medical tent, calm amid chaos prevailed as first responders brought in the wounded while others made their way there, he said. Immediately, the Boston Athletic Association medical team leaders took command turning the city-block-long tent into a trauma triage unit, Palamarchuk said.

Some medical personnel were ordered to the finish line — where the two bombs exploded — to help those with the most severe wounds. Palamarchuk was among those volunteers directed to stay because patients were headed their way to be stabilized and loaded into ambulances.

He and his Temple students happened to be stationed at the tent entrance. They started cleaning the bloody patients, evaluating them for additional signs of trauma, and bandaging them.

“It’s lucky we had all the bandages and materials right there,” he said. “It was fortunate we had the materials.”

While hundreds of injured poured into the main medical tent, hundreds of medical staffers were ready to help. Palamarchuk says he didn’t treat any more than a handful of patients during the 40 minutes he and the students were inside the tent before it was evacuated.

He doesn’t want to discuss in detail what he saw.

“It was as bad as they said,” he added. “It was nothing like I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry for those people.”

A father of two children, ages 10 and 12, Palamarchuk says he feared for his life, but for only a moment.

“You didn’t know if there was going to be another explosion. Would the next one be at the intersection we’re at,” he said. “Then, you put that away when the wounded started coming into the tent.”

On Tuesday morning as he checked out of his hotel at the epicenter of the explosions, the streets looked like a war zone with security checkpoints and armed guards dressed in combat gear and carrying rifles.

At the train station waiting to head back to Philadelphia, his bags were checked. He expected more checks before boarding. At the station, people traded stories about where they were, what they were doing when the bombs exploded.

“It’s my 9/11, I guess. You wonder what it was like in New York that day, now I know what it was like here,” Palamarchuk said, adding he and his Temple students will return next year. “We were glad to be of service. I hope we never have to do it again.”

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: {a href=”Mailto:%20jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com”}jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; {a href=”http://www.twitter.com/jociavaglia”}Twitter: @jociavaglia