As 2023 comes to a close, Metro is revisiting the top local news stories of the year.
While no list can encapsulate everything that happened in Philadelphia this year, what follows are some of the more memorable and impactful events and trends of the last 12 months.
Temple in turmoil
In January, Temple University’s graduate students went on strike. The six-week walkout, which included near constant demonstrations on the college’s campus, made national news when the university decided to strip strikers of tuition and health benefits.
Then, in the second month of the year, Temple Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald, 31, was fatally shot while attempting to stop three teenagers in connection with reports of robberies and carjackings in the area.
Fitzgerald’s death, along with other crimes, prompted safety concerns, leading students to push for additional security measures.
In March, the school’s president, Jason Wingard, resigned less than two years into his tenure. His replacement, longtime Temple professor and administrator JoAnne A. Epps, died suddenly in September while attending a university event.
Tap water scare
A latex chemical leak in Bucks County prompted Philadelphia officials in March to advise residents to consider drinking bottled water, over fears the substance could taint the city’s drinking water supply.
What followed over the next few days was a mad rush for plastic water bottles and a series of updates, with Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration telling Philadelphians served by a Delaware River water processing plant how long their water was guaranteed safe.
Ultimately, no chemicals from the spill were ever detected in the city’s drinking water, according to the administration.
Prison breaks
Two incarcerated men – Ameen Hurst, who had been charged with killing four people, and Nasir Grant – escaped in May from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, one of several jails in the city’s prison complex along State Road.
Their breakout was aided by a napping correctional officer who falsified inmate counts; a hole in a fence that prison officials were previously aware of; and deactivated sensor posts, District Attorney Larry Krasner said last month. Both men were recaptured within two weeks.
It was not the only escape. Convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante scaled a wall in August and broke free from a Chester County jail, leading to a two-week manhunt that gripped the region.
And, in late November, Gino Hagenkotter, an inmate at the city’s Riverside Correctional Facility, escaped while assigned to outdoor work duty. He was found dead of a suspected accidental drug overdose earlier this month inside a Harrowgate warehouse.
Year of Cherelle
Former City Councilmember Cherelle Parker’s mayoral campaign received a major boost in February, when she got the endorsement of the Philadelphia Building Trades, an influential coalition of construction-related labor unions.
Using that support, she came out atop May’s Democratic primary, besting a crowded field that included Rebecca Rhynhart, Helen Gym, Allan Domb and Jeff Brown. Parker easily overcame GOP nominee David Oh in the Nov. 7 general election to succeed Kenney and become Philadelphia’s 100th mayor.
In the weeks since, she has assembled a transition team and begun to name key appointees, such as Kevin Bethel, a longtime law enforcement officer and head of safety for the school district who will serve as police commissioner in Parker’s administration.
Smoky air
A thick haze – the result of smoke from wildfires in Canada – descended on Philadelphia in June, causing dangerous air quality levels.
Health officials urged residents to stay inside and shut their windows and recommended they wear an N95 mask if they needed to venture outdoors. Events, including a Phillies game, were postponed as a result of the smog.
At one point, meters measuring air quality surged past 300 – triggering a ‘code maroon’ – and hit 500, the highest level on the scale.
I-95 collapse and rebuild
An elevated portion of I-95 at Cottman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia collapsed in June after an oil tanker flipped and caught fire under the highway. The driver, Nathaniel Moody, died in the crash.
With the interstate closed, many in the area had to rethink their commutes, and President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttgieg toured the site.
Crews, working 24/7 in an effort that was live-streamed, cleared the debris, backfilled the empty portion of the highway with glass aggregate bricks, and reopened I-95 less than two weeks after the collapse.
In the months since, traffic has been shifted onto a permanent bridge, and workers have started to remove the temporary roadway.
7 die in Bucks County flood
Tragedy struck in July in Bucks County, when a period of intense rain led to flash flooding that killed seven people who were driving along Washington Crossing Road in Upper Makefield Township.
In the days after the flood, search teams from across the region scoured the area in an attempt to find missing siblings Mattie, 2, and Conrad Sheils, a 9-month old baby. Their mother, Katie Seley, died in the rising waters.
Authorities found Mattie’s body but decided to suspend the search after extensive efforts to locate Conrad. Enzo Depiero, 78, Linda Depiero, 74, Susan Barnhart, 53, and Yuko Love, 64 were also killed in the flood.
Kensington police shooting
In August, Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial shot and killed 27-year-old Eddie “Junito” Irizarry Jr. during a traffic stop in Kensington. Irizarry was allegedly holding a knife.
The PPD initially told reporters that Irizarry had gotten out of his vehicle and lunged at officers with a knife in the lead-up to the shooting. Two days later, then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw revised that narrative, saying that evidence showed Irizarry remained in the driver’s seat.
Dial was fired and, in September, charged with murder and other crimes. Later that month, a judge threw out the case, sparking protests. Looting, apparently carried out by opportunists, broke out in Center City and other neighborhoods.
The District Attorney’s Office moved successfully to reinstate the murder charges in October, and Dial has been locked up since, awaiting further court proceedings.
