Police: Man tried to shoot officer
Attorney General gets agency battered by Trump, Barr agenda
A 20-year-old New Jersey man is accused of pointing a gun at a Montgomery County police officer’s head and pulling the trigger on an empty chamber.
Reynaldo Figueroa-Ardon of Vineland was being held Thursday on $3.5 million bail on charges of attempted murder of a police officer and other counts.
According to the Montgomery County district attorney’s office, the Whitemarsh Township police department received a complaint that a man was pulling on door handles of parked cars early Wednesday.
An officer responded and saw Figueroa-Ardon, who matched the suspect’s description. When the officer tried to speak to him, authorities say Figueroa-Ardon began quickly moving away from him, so he jogged to catch up and pulled him by his arm to stop him when Figueroa-Ardon ignored commands to stop.
The officer said the man pulled out a handgun, later determined to have been stolen from a parked car the day before, and pointed it at the officer’s head. The officer said he heard three clicks, but the gun never fired, and he was able to subdue Figueroa-Ardon and handcuff him with the help of other officers.
It wasn’t known Thursday if Figueroa-Ardon has retained an attorney. He faces several charges, including attempted murder of an officer, disarming an officer, reckless endangerment and receiving stolen property.
The state Health Department reported 2,652 additional coronavirus cases Thursday, and the sevenday moving average of newly reported cases was 2,420, down almost 36% from a month ago.
The moving average, which was down 8% from a week ago, is at its lowest point since Nov. 4, when Pennsylvania averaged 2,427 additional coronavirus cases per day.
To date, there have been 958,382 infections statewide since the start of the pandemic last March.
There were 51 deaths. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 39, compared with 50 a week ago.
There were 1,494 people hospitalized as of midday Thursday, compared with 1,513 Wednesday. Of those, 191 were on ventilators, and 320 were in intensive care beds.
The number of hospitalized COVID19 patients dipped below 1,500 for the first time since Nov. 3, but the rate is still more than twice as high as before the October surge that peaked in December with more than 6,400 daily hospitalizations.
Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley report 155 COVID patients, unchanged from Wednesday, with 23 in intensive care beds and 12 on ventilators.
Close to 1 out of 4 eligible Pennsylvanians have been at least partially immunized against the coronavirus, according to combined data from the state and Philadelphia health departments. About 3.7 million shots have been put into 2.5 million people age 16 and over. Statewide, 1.3 million people, or 12.4% of those eligible, have gotten their first shot, while 1.2 million people, or 11.4% of the eligible population, are now fully immunized.
Lehigh Valley’s residents are faring even better, with over 26% of the 16-and-over population — a total of 143,000 people — at least partially vaccinated with one of the 223,730 shots administered locally. Almost 81,000 local residents are fully immunized, and another 62,000 are waiting for their second shot.
The state is averaging more than 83,000 vaccinations per day. March 5 saw a record 111,820 shots given throughout the 67 counties.
Camp Hill-based Rite Aid announced Thursday morning that it is reserving all Thursday and Friday scheduling opportunities for use by education and child care employees, following a directive by the Biden administration to prioritize vaccinating people needed to reopen school and child care facilities.
Those in the state’s 1A group will be able to schedule appointments at Rite Aid pharmacies again starting Saturday.
The Lehigh Valley reported 221 additional cases, with 106 in Lehigh County and 115 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 59,341. There were four new deaths, all in Lehigh County. That brings the total to 1,442, (786 in Lehigh, and 656 in Northampton).
WASHINGTON — Taking the reins at the Justice Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland sought Thursday to assure career staffers that he would prioritize restoring the department’s reputation for political independence and ensuring equal justice after a tumultuous four years under former President Donald Trump.
“The only way we can succeed and retain the trust of the American people is to adhere to the norms that have become part of the DNA of every Justice Department employee,” Garland said in his first address to the department’s more than 115,000 employees.
“All of us are united by our commitment to the rule of law, and to seek an equal justice under law,” he said.
Trump had insisted that his attorney general, and entire department, be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation for political independence. Former Attorney General William Barr became a veritable celebrity under Trump, after he spun the Russia report from former special counsel Robert Mueller favorably for the president, even though Mueller pointedly said he could not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice.
Barr later moved to drop the criminal charges against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and publicly overturned his own prosecutor’s recommended prison sentence for another convicted Trump ally, Roger Stone.
But not even Barr made it to the end of the Trump administration; he resigned in December, weeks after he said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential race, contradicting Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.
On Thursday, Garland signaled in his first address to staff — a formal, 10-minute speech inside the Great Hall at Justice Department headquarters, speaking virtually to staff with about 30 people spread across the large room — the department would return to its normal traditions away from the political sphere. President Joe Biden has also insisted the same.
Nevertheless, Garland is facing some immediate political challenges, including overseeing the ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, and the investigations and prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol when thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the building to halt the certification of the election results.
The Justice Department also has an ongoing federal probe into the overseas and business dealings of the former New York City mayor and Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, which stalled last year over a dispute about investigative tactics as Trump unsuccessfully sought reelection. And separately, the special counsel investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, which shadowed Trump’s presidency for more than two years, remains ongoing. Garland will have to decide how to handle it and what to make public.
But the nation’s top law enforcement official vowed Thursday that he would prioritize ensuring the department return to prosecutorial norms and work to make the public confident in its independence to serve justice.
“Those norms require that like cases be treated alike,” he said. “That there not be one rule for Democrats, and another for Republicans, one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful, and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, or different rules, depending upon one’s race or ethnicity.”
An experienced judge, Garland held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor in the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which led to the execution of Timothy McVeigh. His experience prosecuting domestic terrorism cases could prove exceptionally valuable as investigations into the Capitol insurrection progress.
“When I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland said, referring to Justice Department headquarters.
Garland arrived for his first day shortly after 9 a.m. and was greeted by several dozen officials in the courtyard of the department’s headquarters. As he stepped out of his SUV, Garland hugged his wife, waved to the crowd and elbow-bumped with his predecessor, acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson, as he walked into the building.
About 15 minutes later, he took the oath of office, administered by Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus. A formal ceremonial swearing-in took place later Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris.