• New officers roll in as violent city of Camden phases out force

    Mel Evans / AP

    In this Wednesday, April 24, 2013 photo, Camden County police officers walk together near a mobile command post as they patrol in Camden, N.J.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The last remaining members of the 141-year-old police department in Camden, N.J., will retire their badges Tuesday as the city -- stricken by brutal murders and crippling poverty -- yields its streets to a new metro division of the county police force.

    Gov. Chris Christie and other advocates hope that the transition to a county-run force will help drag the city of 77,000 out of a half century of post-industrial decline and decay, its annals pockmarked by open-air drug markets and sky-high murder rates. Union leaders called the new policing model, which was approved by local and state officials in August 2011, "untested" and said the move amounts to union busting.

    What no one argues is that violent crime in Camden has been all too frequent and often chillingly desperate. The city recorded 67 homicides in 2012, blowing past the previous record of 58 set in 1995. In one case, a man killed a six-year-old boy. In another, a mother decapitated her 2-year-old son.

    “First and foremost the number one goal of the department is to make the residents of Camden feel safer,” said Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the city. “We’re trying to ultimately stabilize the city and stabilize all the neighborhoods within the city.”

    Officials have struggled for years to reduce crime in a city where more than 42 percent of people are thought to live below the poverty line. Budget cuts forced the city to lay off 168 officers in January 2011 -- 46 percent of the entire department. A spike in crime ensued

    Even after some of the laid-off officers trickled back with the help of federal funds, crime rates never fully leveled off. Camden had about 270 cops to rely on as the streets turned into killing zones last year, with absentee rates reported as high as 30 percent, said Jose Cordero, a consultant with 21 years of New York City Police Department experience.

    Police union contracts had gotten too expensive for the city, said Cordero, who helped design the new force. Officers could earn an 11 percent bump in their pay by working an anti-crime patrol, or 10 percent more for working a nighttime shift.

    “The primary purpose of this was the city could not afford to staff up its police department to the number of officers required to have a fighting chance in what is one of the deadliest cities in America,” Cordero said.

    Officers in what will be a 400-strong metro division, to be backed by 100 civilian employees, have trained on the streets of Camden alongside city police since March. About half of the regional force is expected to be comprised of members of the old Camden Police Department.

    “I’m looking to see a partnership form between the metro division officers and the citizens of Camden; that partnership is crucial to prevent future crimes,” said Freeholder director Louis Capelli, Jr., who helped develop the new force.  “For the first time in decades they’ll have officers walking the beat and in their neighborhoods on bicycles.”

    Camden is so far the only town or city to make use of the regional police department, which will be paid for by city property tax revenues and state municipal aid funds, Capelli said.

    Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson will take control of the new force on Wednesday after retiring his city post. The force will cost Camden an estimated $62 million, the same amount the city use to pay for the smaller previous force.

    Some city residents and business owners said they were pleased with the change as the new force began to roll out on streets in April.

    “I’m glad they’re here. We used to have dope boys that were right there,” resident Alicia Mitchell told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Before, we were afraid to even let our kids outside.”

    The teams of newly sworn officers on patrol should be one part of an effort to get Camden cleaned up and back on its feet, said resident Lawrence Perry.

    “The kids don’t have nothing to do, so what else are they going to do? Stand out here, hang on the streets,” Perry told NBC Philadelphia. "They definitely got to change, because we can’t have all these killings. So something’s definitely got to change. So this is just a start.”

    Related:

  • What's the matter with Camden?

    Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Camden, N.J., is the most impoverished city in the United States

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Camden was not always America’s poorest, most crime-ridden city, with scores of open-air drug markets driving children indoors and property values to bedrock lows. Yet when the New Jersey city’s collapse came, it was stark and complete. Civic mismanagement, soaring crime rates, and the flight of business all contributed to Camden’s precipitous decline, the city a victim of industrial forces that shaped the 20th century and left residents stranded. Surrounded by affluent suburbs, Camden shows an ugly face of America that many would rather ignore.

    How bad is the crime problem?

    Camden had the highest crime rate of any city in the country in 2011, according to a review of FBI data by CQ Press. It’s not just the number, but the desperation and gruesomeness of the crimes that is startling. A mother who decapitated her 2-year-old son and a man who killed a 6-year-old boy accounted for but two of the city’s record number of murders in 2012. At the same time, the drug problem has continued to grow, with an estimated 175 open-air drug markets scattered across the crumbling city. Now, officials are planning to disband the more than 140-year-old police force and replace it with county cops, due to arrive in April. There were nearly 70 murders in the city in 2012, almost one for every 1,000 people.

    How poor are the people?

    Among the nation’s poorest, according to 2011 census data, with 42.5 percent of the city’s 77,000 residents thought to be living below the poverty line. The city's median household income was $21,191, lowest among the cities surveyed by the U.S. Census. And this is in one of the nation’s richest states. Children in Camden were far more likely than children in the surrounding county or state to live in poverty according to a 2007 report by the Legal Services of New Jersey.

    What about education?

    A set of charter schools have made some inroads in the city, but the problems for most students remain dire. The graduation rate for Camden high school students was just 49 percent in 2012, according to the state Department of Education. The problem isn't even money, as Camden spent $19,204 per student in the 2011-12 school year, according to the state education department’s Education Funding Report. However, only 1.4 percent of the city’s students met the state’s College-Readiness Benchmark, the report noted.

    Compounding the problem is that plenty of children aren’t getting basic nutrition before showing up in the classroom, said Michael Moynihan, president at the United Way of Camden County. “If kids don’t eat breakfast, they can’t learn,” Moynihan said. A pilot breakfast program at six schools started by the United Way shot up to include 84 percent of eligible students, and may be expanded to the rest of the city’s 26 schools. 

    In Camden, N.J., criminals and drug deals operate in the open, and the police department is understaffed. But some residents are working hard to get their city back on track. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Where did business go?

    Once an industrial boomtown, Camden fell victim to the same post-World War II forces that shuttered factories and ravaged cities like Detroit and neighboring Philadelphia. Without other industries to fall back on, the city has never recovered from the economic blow. “Camden was particularly vulnerable,” said Paul Jargowsky, director of the Center for Urban Research and Education at Rutgers University. “There really was nothing else other than Campbell Soup and the shipyards and RCA Victor.” 

    What have politicians done?

    In the cases of at least three mayors in the last 30 years, the most noteworthy thing politicians have done is go to jail. The scandalous streak began with Angelo Errichetti, a son of the city and former Camden high school footballer who was caught up in the government’s Abscam probe – an FBI sting that targeted public corruption – and convicted of bribery in 1983. Arnold Webster served as mayor from 1994 to 1997 before pleading guilty to fraud charges in 1998.  Webster’s successor, Milton Milan, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison in 2001 on bribery, money laundering, and racketeering charges.

    Can the city recover?

    Much of the development that has occurred in recent years has grown up around the healthcare and education industries, including the city’s Rutgers campus and Cooper University Hospital. “There are some pockets of real progress and there are some very visible neighborhood transformations that have occurred,” Moynihan said. “There are other neighborhoods that still have whole blocks of boarded up or long-vacant houses that serve as places for squatters, for drug users, for all sorts of risky behaviors.”

    While the city’s population has suffered over the last two decades, it may be the most stubborn residents that drag it back, Jargowsky said. “I think a lot of people are very committed to seeing people come back,” he said. “Among my students who live in the city, they’re very committed to wanting the city to have a renaissance.”

    Related: 

    'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

    Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

    Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:04 PM EST

  • America's 'invincible' city brought to its knees by poverty, violence

    In America's most dangerous and poorest city, Camden, N.J., bullet holes are visible in a church's stained glass window, crosses commemorating the murdered line the outside of city hall and the police staff is so outnumbered and outgunned, drug deals occur in the open. Rock Center's Brian Williams visits Camden and talks to those fighting to turn around the forgotten city.

    By Shoshana Guy, Producer, NBC News

    CAMDEN, N.J. -- Inscribed on the walls of City Hall are the words of Walt Whitman, the great American poet who spent his final years in this city: “In a dream I saw a city invincible.”

    But the decades since have not been kind to Camden. Today it is the poorest in the nation.

    Directly in the shadow of the glittering skyline of Philadelphia, Camden has long suffered the indignities that poverty breeds. A drive through the streets of the 9-square mile city reveals a moonscape of crumbling infrastructure and abandoned homes, nearly 4,000 in all.

    “I always think of Camden as the best visual aid in America to see what has gone wrong and what is going wrong,” said Father Michael Doyle, who has been serving the city’s poor from his Sacred Heart Church for more than 40 years. 

    Camden was once a manufacturing boomtown, home to RCA Victor, Campbell’s Soup and the biggest shipbuilding company in the world. But once industrial jobs began drying up decades ago – as they did in so many other cities across the United States – many people left for greener pastures.

    Then came a crushing blow: the race riots of 1969 and 1971, which left the city mortally wounded. In the decades that followed, civic corruption and mismanagement rendered Camden increasingly poor and violent. Three mayors have been indicted in the past few decades, adding to the sense of hopeless among residents.

    In Camden, N.J., criminals and drug deals operate in the open, and the police department is understaffed. But some residents are working hard to get their city back on track. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Last year was the bloodiest in Camden’s history; the city of just 77,000 had 67 homicides. On average someone was shot every 33 hours.

    “It was a tough, tough year,” said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson. “And for a city as hardened as Camden is and has become over time, it buckled the city to its knees.” 

    Distraught over the level of violence, the community erected crosses on the lawn of City Hall to try and draw attention to the crisis.

    Thomson said crime rates have gone up because he has fewer cops. In early 2011, unable to fund its obligations, the city cut the police department in half, leaving roughly 200 officers to police one of the most violent cities in the country. 

    NBC News

    Crosses on the lawn of City Hall mark lives lost to violence.

    “It’s gotten to the point where even in our daytime hours in this city people are scared to leave their homes,” said Thomson.  “And this is the United States of America. Children should not have to fear even sitting on their own front steps.”

    There is movement to get more officers on the streets. In April of this year, a new county force will take over for the City Police Department, adding 200 officers to the ranks.

    The decision to regionalize the force enraged the Camden Fraternal Order of Police, which has charged the city with union busting. 

    “The experienced officers are the best chance they have to provide safety to the public,” said FOP spokesperson Nancy Webster.

    But Chief Thomson hopes more boots on the ground will help stabilize the city. “At no point in time can we ever quit,” he said. “Failure is not an option.”

    Chrissy Rodriguez, who lives on one of the most violent streets in the city, worries about her two young boys constantly. 

    “My kids don't get to go outside. They don't get to play,” said Rodriguez. “And I'm not gonna let them ride a bike down the street … in the afternoon. People are getting shot.”

    But it’s hard for people like Rodriguez to scrape together enough funds to leave. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of Camden’s citizens are out of work. Rodriguez has only been able to find a part-time job, which brings in about $700 a month. 

    About 42 percent of Camden’s population lives below the poverty line, with the average income hovering around $26,000 a year. That is in stark contrast to the rest of New Jersey, where the average household income is $71,000 a year — the third highest in the nation. 

    “America has decided to concentrate its poor,” said Father Doyle. “The wall around Camden is very high, it’s an economic wall. You can’t get over it.”

    The Rev. Michael Doyle, who has been serving the city's poor from his Sacred Heart Church for more than 40 years, tells Brian Williams there is hope for the city of Camden.

    The “walls” of Camden hold in a population that is 48 percent black and 47 percent Hispanic.

    The city is trying to revitalize. Old buildings along the waterfront have been turned into luxury condos. Cooper Hospital and Rutgers University have created stability on handfuls of blocks. And recently Cooper opened a medical school. Still, the main industry remains the drug trade and it’s been so bad for so many years that the city’s tragedies often seem to go unnoticed.

    Recently, a former citizen of the city paid for a billboard near the Camden exit off I-676 that read, “Say something nice about Camden.” 

    Camden’s got heart. And you’ll find that heart in community leaders like Tawanda Jones. Better known as Ms. Wawa, Jones is the leader of the dance troop the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team for school-age girls.

    “There's a lotta people from Camden that are so gifted and so talented,” said Jones.

    Jones has been volunteering her time for more than 25 years. She raises money to help the team travel, visits the children’s schools on her days off, and dedicates herself four nights a week, all year round to creating a safe space for children.

    “We practice all year round cause there’s danger all year round,” said Jones.

    For now, through the efforts of people like Jones, the City Invincible marches on. 

    “There's a spirit in poor people, resilience and a hope and a generosity,” said Father Doyle. “We might be invincible in that regard, that human beings do not give up.”

    Camden's got heart. And you'll find that heart in community leaders like Tawanda Jones. Better known as Ms. Wawa, Jones is the leader of the dance troop the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team for school-age girls.

    Related: 

    'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

    Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

    Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

    This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:03 PM EST

  • 'I thought it was a movie': N.J. couple allegedly stole cop cars, led police on chase

    View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

    The young couple accused of stealing multiple police cars from two cities and leading authorities on a high-speed chase through two states Tuesday morning have been identified as Blake Bills and Shayna Sykes.


    "I never heard of anyone stealing two police cars in one incident," said Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross.

    Camden, N.J., Police Chief John S. Thomson tells NBC10's Cydney Long that Camden Police Officer Sekou Reid-Bey made a traffic stop at 9:49 a.m., directly in front of Camden Police Headquarters at 800 Federal Street, when the incident began.

    "As [the officer] was interviewing the driver of that car, he heard his car door shut," he said.

    Thompson says Reid-Bey, 49, saw the couple jump into his cruiser. He says they struck him, breaking the officer's leg, before driving off.

    Read more at NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Initially, Sykes, 23, and Bills, 24, were pursued by both the Camden and Pennsauken Police Departments -- reaching 100 mph on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, according to Camden County prosecutors. That pursuit lasted about 10 minutes and wove through the city of Camden and portions of Pennsauken.

    As the stolen police cruiser crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge the South Jersey officers peeled off and Philly PD picked up the chase. The suspect eventually crashed the Camden Police car in the area of 7th and Norris in North Philadelphia.

    Sykes fled from the crashed cruiser, according to law enforcement sources, leaving Bills trapped inside the Camden Police car.

    With police attempting to apprehend Sykes, sources say she managed to steal a Philadelphia Police car, No. 2625, from the area of 7th and Norris, also in Philadelphia.

    As it was being chased, the stolen Philadelphia cruiser hit three cars at 6th and Lehigh. It also nearly struck a pedestrian walking near 5th and Clearfield. That person fell and hit their head -- his/her condition is unknown.

    The car was eventually stopped at 1100 Hope Street on the edge of Northern Liberties. Sykes attempted to run from the cruiser, but was apprehended by several officers just feet from the stolen car.

    Sykes was handcuffed and put into another police cruiser. She was taken to East Detectives. The entire Philadelphia chase lasted about 15 minutes.

    "I thought it was a movie," Felix Vargus, a tow truck driver, told NBC10's Claudia Rivero. "She was trying to fight with them so she could escape again."

    Another witness who observed her arrest told Rivero the woman was not wearing shoes when she was taken into custody.

    Police say that drugs possibly played a role in the incident and that both Bills and Sykes will face a slew of charges including resisting arrest, DUI, fleeing police and risking a catastrophe.

    "And that's just here," Thompson said. "The other charges you will need to deal with Camden prosecutors for that."

    Sykes and Bills are suspected of evading an officer during an attempted traffic stop Sunday -- just two days before the high-speed chase.

    Camden prosecutors say they expect to charge the duo with aggravated assault and theft.

    Reid-Bey was being treated at Cooper University Hospital. 

    "He's doing well. He's going to be fine. He's in stable condition; significant injuries to the lower extremities of his body though," said Thompson. He says the officer, after being hit, went onto the cruiser's hood before being thrown to the concrete. The injured officer was then able to radio for assistance.

    An official with the Camden Fraternal Order of Police tells NBC10 that Reid-Bey is an 18-year-veteran of the force.

    "There will be a litany of charges she will face in Philadelphia," said Ross. "I think [authorities] did a great job under the circumstances."

    Bills and Sykes both hail from Macungie, Pa. Police say that Bills grandmother reported the couple missing earlier in the day after they allegedly took the woman's car and left her with the couple's 7-month-old child. Police also suspect the couple is involved in another police chase on Sunday that left an officer injured. 

    By NBCPhiladelphia.com

  • Man arrested in throat-slashing attack on sleeping kids in New Jersey

    By NBC News and news services

    A man is in custody and charged with the throat-slashing attack that killed a little boy and left his sister in critical condition in Camden, N.J., prosecutors said.

    Osvaldo Rivera, 31, of Camden, was arrested Sunday afternoon and charged with murder and attempted murder, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor's office, The Associated Press reported. Rivera is in jail awaiting arraignment.

    Dominick Andujor, 6, died from his injuries. His 12-year-old sister was in critical condition at Cooper Hospital.

    The children were asleep when they were attacked early Sunday morning at their home on Ware Street, according to NBCPhiladelphia.com.

    The girl, whose name was not released, went door to door in her Camden neighborhood to get help and finally reached the home of Nakyta McCray, who called 911. McCray said the girl "was barely breathing'' and bleeding profusely when emergency personnel arrived, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

    Authorities say the children were being watched by a 14-year-old girl when the attack happened, according to AP. She was unharmed.

    The Associated Press and NBCPhiladelphia.com contributed to this story.

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  • One of most dangerous cities in US plans to ditch police force

    Mel Evans / AP

    Police are seen in a downtown shopping area in Camden, N.J.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    One of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. is getting rid of its police department.



    Follow @andrewjmach

    Amid what they call a “public safety crisis,” officials in Camden, N.J., plan to disband the city's 141-year-old police department and replace it with a non-union division of the Camden County Police.

    Camden city officials have touted the move as necessary to combat the city’s growing financial and safety problems. The entire 267-member police department will be laid off and replaced with a newly reformatted metro division, which is projected to have some 400 members. It will serve only the city of Camden starting in early 2013.

    “It’s not a money-saver, it’s living within the budget you’ve got to get more boots on the ground,” Camden County spokesperson Joyce Gabriel told NBC News. “There has been an uptick in violence this year, and the city decided to go with the county’s police department.”

    Camden isn’t the first cash-strapped city to be faced with the decision to eliminate or merge its police department.

    Bernard Melekian, director of the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office, told NBC News that as communities around the country recover from the recession, police mergers are part of a new reality that will likely continue through the next decade.

    San Bernardino, Calif., files for bankruptcy with over $1 billion in debts

    “This really reflects a much broader issue, which is that the economy is changing the delivery of police services profoundly,” Melekian said, “and those agencies undergoing regionalization and consolidation – in particular, smaller ones that are financially distressed – are going to have to find another way of delivering those core services.”

    'Recipe for disaster'
    Given Camden’s exceptionally high rate of violence (the city recorded this year’s 41st homicide earlier this month), city police officers in danger being laid off say the transition is risky at best.

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    “We’re concerned, we’re definitely concerned,” Camden Fraternal Order of Police President John Williamson told NBC News. “You’re going to create a police department and staff it with people who are unfamiliar with the city and say, ‘Go ahead and fight crime.’ That’s a recipe for disaster.”

    Afflicted by homelessness, drug trafficking, prostitution, robbery and violence, Camden has consistently ranked high among the top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S. since 1998, according to Morgan Quitno Press, a research firm that compiles statistical data on cities. In 2010, Camden had the highest crime rate in the U.S., with 2,333 violent crimes per 100,000 people, more than five times the national average.

    Camden Mayor Dana Redd underscored the importance of the new, regionalized police force in her proposal for the next fiscal year’s budget.

    “The senseless acts of violence occurring in our city affect every one of us,” Redd said in a statement. “We need to assure our residents that all life matters and that we are serious about making our city safe by expanding the number of boots on the ground. This decision to move towards a Camden Metro Division is being made solely on what is right for our residents – nothing more, nothing less.”

    Baltimore officials are considering plugging budget deficits by selling advertisement space on the side of fire trucks. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

    Layoffs of the city’s police force will begin by the end of the month, according to the mayor’s office. County officials said that at most 49 percent of the city’s police officers, based on an application process, will be transferred to the new county division under the plan.

    Gabriel said the terms of contract for current officers of the city's police department, which include longevity bonuses, day-shift differentials and other costs, make it too expensive to transfer all of them to the new force, so the rest of the Metro Division will be staffed by new hires. Louis Cappelli Jr., director of the Camden County Board of Freeholders, told NBC News that more than 1,500 people from various states and police backgrounds have already applied for the county positions.

    The new division, to be fully funded by the city of Camden and the state of New Jersey, will begin field training on the streets as early as October for a period of 17 to 19 weeks.

    But no matter how long the training, Rockefeller Institute Director Thomas Gais told NBC News that consolidating into one system and increasing cost-effectiveness takes time.  

    “It’s going to be a disruption at least for a while before some kind of consolidation happens, before the reorganization begins to work as intended,” Gais said. “There’s a tradeoff generally in the responsiveness to local needs and efficiency in reallocating resources, so the question becomes whether the reorganization reduces the quality of service and whether the short-term risk is worthwhile in the long run.”

    Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

    Gabriel said that cities within Camden County have the option to cede their municipal police force to a county department.

    Saving money
    Union officials argue that Camden's move is a way for the city to get out of collective bargaining with police. The county's new metro division officers will be non-union members.

    The police department in Camden has been under state control since 2005, when then-mayor Gwendolyn Faison called for the takeover. The agreement is set to expire at the end of the year, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has thrown his support behind the transition to county control.

    “A county police force that has a reasonable contract and that’s going to provide a huge increase in the number of police officers on the streets here in Camden is a win for everybody,” Christie said at a recent event at Rutgers-Camden University. “I’m willing to put my name on the line for this concept.”

    Other state officials have backed similar initiatives.

    A 2011 report by the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, a group representing the nation’s 63 largest police forces, found that 70 percent were consolidating some law enforcement functions to compensate for recent budget cuts.

    • Faced with mounting costs and declining revenue, the city of Midvale, Utah, was forced to merge four local police agencies with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department.  
    • In Pennsylvania, the state police are increasingly taking on more patrol duties following the recent closures of municipal departments. Since 2010, at least 33 cities scattered throughout the state have closed or scaled back their agencies, according to state records.
    • Police agencies in Oakland and Detroit have raised concerns about their ability to respond to routine resident burglaries, theft, and public nuisance calls because they were stretched too thin providing support for other agencies. 

    “We’re seeing the economy do a lot of different things to the agencies, which are looking at various forms of consolidation, all of which is driven by the economy,” Melekian said, adding that he knows of at least 100 police agencies around the country undergoing some form of service consolidation.

    Cities that have made the switch from municipal to county or regional forces have reported saving millions of dollars and passing grades on the street, but Melekian said a shakeup of the current system in Camden won't eradicate crime or solve budgetary woes.

    “The consensus seems to be that this saves money, but it does not produce instantaneous savings,” Melekian said. “There are too many issues that need to be resolved, too many expenses, so at some point they’ll have to work through these inefficiencies before they get the results they want.”

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  • Police: N.J. mom decapitated son, put head in freezer before killing herself

    A New Jersey police say a mother killed her 2-year-old son and put his head in the freezer of their home before stabbing herself to death. WCAU's Marisa Brahney reports.

    By Lauren DiSanto, NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET: Police say a Camden, N.J., mother apparently decapitated her 2-year-old boy and put his head in the freezer of their home before she fatally stabbed herself.


    Chevonne Thomas, 33, called 911 just after midnight to say something had happened to her child, said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the county prosecutor's office, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    "The information they were receiving was very muddled, but it led them to believe there was a child that was in jeopardy," Laughlin said.

    Officers immediately found Zahree Thomas' body on the first floor of the home and later found the boy's head in the freezer, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported.

    NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Police keep clear the scene of a murder-suicide in Camden, N.J.

    The child's mother was upstairs still talking to the 911 operator when officers backed out of the home because they didn't know if she was armed, Laughlin said.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com 

    The mother stabbed herself in the neck with a kitchen knife and died, Laughlin said.

    During the 911 call she first accused her boyfriend of stabbing her child, then admitted repeatedly "I did it," Laughlin said.
    Toxicology tests would be needed to determine if Thomas was high on drugs at the time, he said.

    Camden police

    Chevonne Thomas

    The  mother had lost custody of Zahree in 2010 after allegedly leaving him unattended in a car while she was blacked out in a nearby park from smoking PCP-laced marijuana, prosecutors told The Associated Press. She reclaimed custody of the child five months ago.

    There was no immediate word on how long Thomas and the boy had lived at the address. Police don't believe anyone else was in the house.

    Camden, which lies across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has been plagued by poverty and high crime rates.

    "Everybody here is very shaken up. One of the sergeant's from my office says it's one of the most grisly things he's seen on the job," said Laughlin.

    Thomas leaves behind an 18-year-old child, according to prosecutors. 

    This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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  • New Jersey kids win $500,000 settlement after being forced to eat on school's gym floor

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Seven students forced to eat lunch on their New Jersey school's gymnasium floor for two weeks as punishment won a $500,000 legal settlement, their attorney said Tuesday.

    The 2008 incident involved fifth-grade students at Charles Sumner Elementary School in Camden, N.J., who were disciplined after one child spilled water as he tried to lift a jug onto a cooler, according to lawyer Alan Schorr.

    The students filed a federal lawsuit against the Camden Board of Education, which agreed to the settlement, Schorr said.

    Discord
    He said the incident took place against a backdrop of discord between the black and Hispanic populations in the impoverished southern New Jersey city. The children were Hispanic.


    Schorr said the vice principal, who was African-American, punished all 15 students in a bilingual class by making them eat off paper liners normally used on lunch trays. (While there were 15 students in the class, only seven sued.)

    "The African-American kids were eating at tables, with trays, taunting these Hispanic kids who were forced to eat on the ground," Schorr said.

    The vice principal has since transferred.

    CourierPostOnline.com reported that the board of education had approved the settlement but not admitted any guilt.

    It added:

    "Under the settlement, the students will split $280,000, which works out to $31,428 each. Their attorney, Alan H. Schorr of Cherry Hill, will get $220,000."

     

    The children's teacher was fired after encouraging them to tell their parents about the punishment. The teacher won a $75,000 settlement earlier.

    Neither school officials nor their lawyers could be reached for comment.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

     

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