A New Castle man has been captured for his alleged part in the 2019 murder of a Sharon father of two. WFMJ-TV reports Seon Perry was arrested two weeks ago in North Dakota. Perry’s arrest comes two years after authorities in Mercer County charged the 32-year-old New Castle man in connection with the May 23rd 2019, murder of 24-year-old Khalil Hopson in Sharon. Two other people have already been sentenced in connection with the crime. Authorities are expected to extradite Perry to Mercer County where he faces charges of criminal homicide, robbery, conspiracy, burglary, and cruelty to animals.
A portion of interstate 80 in Mercer County was closed last night following a tractor trailer accident. State Police said the tractor trailer went off the roadway in the westbound lane on I-80 around 10:30 last night. No injuries were reported. I-80 westbound was closed between Mercer and I-376 to remove the tractor trailer.
State records show Pennsylvania had collected more than a billion dollars in state taxes that had been expected last month. Even so, the Department of Revenue says the three-point-three billion in general fund revenue collected in May was 46-million-dollars less than expected. Weaker than anticipated corporate net income tax final payments and personal income tax withholding payments were the primary reason monthly collections fell short. That’s according to the Independent Fiscal Office.
The Beaver County boroughs of Baden, Conway and Freedom are now served by one united police department. Officials earlier this year voted to dissolve individual departments that had been serving those communities in part due to resource and staffing issues. On Sunday, residents began being served by the new Beaver Valley Regional Police Department.
As the state Senate returns to session today, there are calls for the chamber to
act on bills to combat gun violence which were recently passed by the House. One of the bills passed by the House would require background checks on the sale of all firearms in
Pennsylvania. The other would create an extreme risk protection order, allowing guns to be
temporarily taken away from someone deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Governor Josh Shapiro says there’s a need to build a bipartisan coalition to pass these bills in the Senate. However, the measures may face a bigger challenge in the Senate.
State Police in Mercer County report a fatal accident in Springfield Township. Police said 78 year old David Fitzgerald pulled from the intersection of Leesburg Station Road and Perry Highway, into the path of a vehicle operated by 37 year old Gary Brown Jr., of Hermitage. Fitzgerald was flown to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Youngstown where he later died from his injuries. A passenger 80 year old Bonnie Fitzgerald was taken to the Allegheny Health Network in Grove City for treatment. No other injuries were reported.
County leaders are calling for the state to boost mental health funding and provide more funds toward the cost of 9-1-1 service for the coming year. Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed a 20-million-dollars boost to mental health funding with additional spending in future years. Shapiro has also proposed spending 100-million-dollars to boost school mental health services. But members of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania say that’s not good enough. They estimate that counties will need a billion-and-a-half dollars to make up for the shortfalls in state funding.
Acting U.S. Attorney Tony Rivetti announced on Friday that a Baden man has been sentenced to 124 months’ imprisonment followed by lifetime supervised release on his conviction of possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor and for violating the terms of federal supervised release. 35 year old Andrew Kincaid , pleaded guilty to one count in U.S. District County in Pittsburgh. Federal authorities said Kincaid in March of 2021 knowingly possessed an electronic device containing child sexual abuse material, in violation of federal law and the conditions of his supervised release related to his 2010 federal conviction, also for possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.
Governor Shapiro is advocating for free breakfasts for students in schools across the state. He was in Montgomery County last week to highlight his proposal for 38-and-a-half million-dollars in funding for the universal breakfast program. He said feeding children is part of the effort to give every child in Pennsylvania a great opportunity to get the greatest education there is . The final state budget must be adopted by June 30.