>> he said it is obvious that any head line, about any alleged plan for, and, and, that head line in perspective, there was, at no time, any credible threat to the pope in his opinion and there is currently no credible threat as of this moment. >> this is not something that people should be alarmed about. >> reporter: police commissioner ramsey told me that media reports about the arrest of the 15 year-old south jersey boy last month, for allegedly planning an attack on the pope during his visit here, has caused unnecessary, concerns, about any potential threat that might have been posed by the the teenage suspect. >> do i think it is over blown. >> reporter: ramsey emphasizes fbi acted quickly to make the arrest, cbs news confirming that the suspect allegedly went on line with an isis member or sympathizer, urged on to research an attack on the pope or a diplomate. he was soon arrested, and the

commissioner says, he posed no credible threat. >> my definition of what would be credible, something that could be operation alleyed, something that is really about to take place, that sort of thing, and unless i'm missing something i don't see this as having that level of significance where people should be concerned about it. >> reporter: commissioner stressed, protecting the pope is a top priority for all local, federal law enforcement. while anything suspicious is always investigated, it is very important to keep things in perspective. >> everybody is kind of looking for that one little nugget of something that would make this story something more than just the pope coming to america. i don't think this is it. >> reporter: commissioner, neither commissioner nor fbi could comment on the specifics of the allegation, because the suspect is in juvenile all of his record are sealed and all court proceedings are closed. finally the commissioner's advice to all of us

anticipating the pope's visit here relax, we are watching, ebb joy this moment. live at police headquarters, i'm walt hunter for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >> thanks very much. it is a massive construction project, we are getting a behind the the scenes look at what will soon become the papal stage. today on eakins oval 75 men and women began piecing together what will become the center piece of pope francis visit. they are constructing the skeleton for the stage and arch that will cover it. u.s. n productions is in charge. >> we have 28 miles of cable being distributed throughout this area, about 40,000 feet of truck, 30 miles of audio cable, 15,000 feet of construction fence. >> it is quite a project. organizers say you should plan to see the stage take shape by early next week. we have some important parking information from philadelphia residents forced to move their cars during the papal visit.

the philadelphia parking authority will allow people with residential parking permits to park in other permit parking districts on a limited basis. those with permits in districts one, four, five, six, and ten, may park on any permit parking block from sunday, september 20th, through the 29th. and just 11 days pope francis will be in philadelphia, we continue to get more and more information, about this, so we can always get to cbs philly.com for the latest. life saving accident cost a hero his life good samaritan puts himself between a with man and infant daughter and man with a knife. it happened last night on a dark bus on 1,000 block of north king street, in wilmington. "eyewitness news" reporter diana rocco joins us from wilmington with the very latest tonight, diana. >> reporter: ukee, 27 year-old thomas cotingham is being hailed a hero tonight, police say he lost his life, saving a woman and her child from a man with a knife. here in rodney square a

memorial has been set up to cotingham today, there are balloons near bus stop where all of this happened last night. woman told police she was walking with her baby in the stroller when 25 year-old calvin hooker began to follow her for several blocks making comment about a stolen cell phone. that is when she he told police he pulled the knife out on her. woman ran to a waiting bus in rodney square. that is when thomas cotingham saw what was going on and police say he stepped into protect the the woman and her child. police say hooker stabbed cotingham in the back and when he collapsed on the ground, hooker climbed on top of him and stab him several more times in the upper torso. that is when he fled. witnesses were able to direct police to another bus several blocks away, where hooker had boarded and he was trying to hide from the police. that is when police had to taser him to get him to drop the knife and take him into custody. hooker is being charged with first degree murder and he is behind bars tonight while

family and friend are mourning the the loss of cotingham, a good samaritan, who died saving a woman and her child. we're live from wilmington delaware tonight, i'm diana rocco for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". now new at 6:00 prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a former colwyn police office's accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and wounding her daughter. steven ross knee a cow ski of norwood is facing charges, among them, murder, tempted murder and aggravated assault. authorities say part-time colwyn officer killed his ex-girlfriend valerie, and shot and wounded her daughter bridgette cruz. it happened in december, in glenn olden. >> this particular evening, december 15th, of 2014, at 6:00 p.m., he was served with a protection from abuse order. that order forbid him to come

in contact with miss marrow. >> he was then shot, and then wound by victim's husband, a part-time officer. a south jersey law office is reduced to ruble, after an apparent gas explosion, and fire. emergency officials are looking into what caused the blast to make sure it does not happen again. "eyewitness news", new jersey report are cleve bryan is at that explosion site with more on this, cleve. >> reporter: gas explosion, law offices, a actually it belongs to the municipal judge in town. it had been gas lines, construction, going on for past several months here in pennsville and feeling among people in town is this that this could have happened to anyone. >> you always think it can't happen to you, you know, until it does. >> reporter: eyewitness video captured a pennsville law office burning out of control around 8:00 o'clock this morning. the first came an explosion, then. >> within seconds, the the place was down and flames.

>> reporter: police, and several neighbors evacuated for fear gas leak caused the explosion and might do more damage. >> we knew fire started in the basement, there was an explosion. we're wondering if maybe the construction company working on the gas lines ignited something we're not sure. what we kind of think is gas got in the house, maybe pilot light ignited we are not sure. >> reporter: south jersey gas secured gas line as fire fighters spent two hours trying to contain the fire. it turns out one of their own was a victim volunteer fire fighters frank surveys, lived in the apartment above the law office of john jordan. >> i'm the one usually on the truck and now i'm standing behind the line, watching this all go down. it is all surreal. >> reporter: officials say south jersey gas hand been replacing lines along broadway for past several months causing two previous leaks. they released a a statement saying in part an investigation must be completed before a specific cause can be determined, safety is our utmost concern, and we're thankful no one was injured today. >> it is scary, i'm oil.

hopefully i'm safe. but yeah, i don't like gas. >> reporter: part of the structure was still standing this afternoon but they had a front end loader income down the rest because it is unsafe for anybody to go inside. police department and mayor met with south jersey gas this afternoon to discuss, further construction work and then they say they will have more communication so they make sure everything is safe. live from pennsville i'm cleve bryan, cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >> cleve, thank you. center city resident woke up to this terrifying sight, eyewitness cam video from the inside the chancellor apartments on 13th and chancellor streets and you can see the flames shooting from the building next door. officials say that the fire started just before 4:30 and it took an hour to get the 39 alarm blaze under control. residents in both buildings were able to get out safely. >> they must have knock on the door real loud and it knock me down. >> i was coming outside the building, we saw the building next door on fire, fall in flames. >> right now cause of the the

fire remains under investigation, authorities believe that it started in a bar and restaurant now under construction. after a couple fall-like days a return to summer-like temperatures now, still a beautiful afternoon but it was a little warmer than normal i'm told for this time of the year. kate/the sky deck to tell us more about that. >> temperatures got to the 80's today and we should be in the upper 70's but that being said it was a perfect day, sunshine across the board and low humidity and great evening outside. quick peak shows we are scanning the area in the finding anything at all. not even a cloud in the sky right now this week practically perfect, sunny skies, check, warm temperatures, check mark there low humidity and light wind, we have got it all. it is perfect weather unless you are a fan have rain or snow. we don't have that in the forecast really at all even rain, maybe a stray shower here or there but next week but other than that it is quiet, lower 80's, feeling great and more perfectly, dew points, look at these dew points, 40 and low 50's, that

means very dry air is in place and that is, that will continue as we go through tonight, and into tomorrow. it means another cool night on the way, we will bottom out in the 50's, wake up to morning low in philadelphia around 61 degrees and that will feel very comfortable. but, it is one of those cool mornings, warm afternoon kind of days, we will want to bundle up in the morning, maybe wear a hood owe and then we will warm up nicely with temperatures in the 80's. i'll let you you know how long it will last with the seven day forecast, back inside to you. new at 6:00 the search is on for heartless vandals, tonight graffiti covers part of the playground meant to memorialize a slain philadelphia police officer. and neighbors say they are outraged. "eyewitness news" reporter real solomon is live at the darbyville playground in somerton with the details. >> reporter: many people we spoke to today say this is a special park for them. it is built, and meant to memorialize officer danny boyle so when people came here

and saw this graffiti, some say they were devastated. >> it real hi hurts. it hurts so badly. >> reporter: for patricia kerrigan this relatively minor graffiti came as a very big shock. >> i was like my goodness. >> reporter: park officials say monday evening, someone sprayed the slide and or parts of the playground. it was built to remember philadelphia police officer danny boyle killed during a traffic stop six months on the job. >> i'm sad. who would do something like that. to a playground named after a very special person that i knew, police officer that i knew. >> reporter: some neighbors complained that their children didn't want to slide because of the vandalism, other children say that they just could not understand who would do this. >> why did this person do that? >> reporter: this is the president of the somerton civic association which helped neighbors with quality of life concerns and says that the park is a central meeting space used by many. >> there is a lot of activities that take place

here from community days, to various fundraisers, to also dance classes, so, the playground is a program as a whole are a big part of the community. >> reporter: while officer boyle connection is difficult for some, others say they don't think that the park was a target. >> i'm he sure whoever did that wasn't thinking about that. >> reporter: police say they have not identified a suspect, but, surveillance cameras surround the park. i'm's told detectives will be yule using that footage as they work to identify who is responsible. and park officials say this is the second time that the play ground has been vandalized first time since 2013, and they tell me a cleaning crew is scheduled to be back out here this morning or tomorrow morning, to clean it up. reporting live from somerton, real solomon for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >> all right, thanks very much. still to come on "eyewitness news". >> could snow days be a thing of the past for local students? why some area schools are thinking of getting rid of them and how they plan to do

it, don. another reminder that you have to crawl before you ball, sam bradford playing in his first real game since 2013, hear what the eagles quarterback had to say about knocking off the rustt later in sports.

but for some area children, snow days, are becoming a thing of the past. >> um-hmm. >> and "eyewitness news" reporter alexandria hoff shows south local districts are trying to weather the storm when it comes to all of those make up days. >> reporter: the leaves are barely brown, students at holy rosery regional catholic school in plymouth meeting are busy down loading an app that will get them through winter. >> we can see the first six children that get on which is hilarious. i say we will be able to see you so clean up your bedrooms. >> reporter: they have in the had a traditional snow day in two years. >> we down loaded, the the meeting app for each of the teachers they have signed up and they could bring in 25 students to a class virtually. first year we dit, it was phenomenal. >> last year department of

education made it so public schools, too could explore, quote, flexible instructional days, aka cyber snow days, only 13 districts were approved to do this through 2015, including avon grove and unionville chad forward school districts in chester county. the it doesens of other interested districts must apply by november in order to implement their cyber curriculum in place of the the day off this winter, but one big roadblock, helping families, who just cannot connect. the department says that quote, comparable options must be made available to students and teachers unable to access their resources due to lack of power, technology or connectivity. >> so we gave our kids, ipad so they all have access and that is only way you can getaway with doing this. >> reporter: for state funded schools requirements can be a bit the more strict. she adds that her students are happy to swap out hot chocolate for an extra day on the beach come june. interestingly enough the two

chester county districts approved to hold these cyber snow days, say while they are still interesting, they are not going to use them this winter, citing milk messages from the state. so, you may in the want to throw away those sled just yet. alexandria hoff for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". thanks, alex. don't take away the snow days. >> i know. >> best thing ever. >> we used to listen on the radio. they called your actual school name, then that was the number. >> i was 856 growing up. every time i heard it, it was a great feeling. >> i know. >> many, many more months away, we will won't talk bit just yet, we are seeing more fall like at night in the morning and wake up with a chill in the air. afternoon it is awesome outside. beautiful f you can get out this evening and go for a walk around the neighborhood maybe sit outside and throw some burgers on the grill, it is a

half summer half fall kind of days where maybe firing up the grill and light sweater once sun goes down. perfect afternoon. lets look outside. take you out to campbell's field camera showing you ben franklin bridge which is looking lovely with sunshine, blue skies. another beautiful sunset out there tonight. not a cloud in the sky. we will see sky turning a bunch of different colors and not get reflection off the cloud, but still, a gorgeous, sun dabbled day and it will be a nice evening as well. we will go down to the boardwalk place, shadows lengthening here on the beach at 74 degrees with blue skies, that is as far as the eye can see. storm scan three not finding anything at all. i will skip over this because is there nothing to show you. even if we zoom out, nothing going on it is completely clear. eighty-one at the moment in philadelphia. eighty in reading. seventy-three in mount pocono. seventy-five wildwood. ocean water temperature still comfortable. if this is your week down the the shore boy did you pick a winner with temperatures in the lower 80's there all week

long. coming up high pressure stays overhead so this is a a big blocking high and not going anywhere. with that high, air mass will warm up within itself over next few days but again with the high directly overhead we are not talking about wind here. the light win, warm temperatures, lots of sunshine that goes through friday and then we will watch a front that will be approaching through the weekend in the seven day. i will show what you that could do for us. lets recap the summer. june was a wet month. almost every weekend had rain. 8.88 inches of rain. 5-inch's above average. in july we had ten, 90 plus degree days. in august, temperatures were well above average. highest temperature of the summer, 96 back on september 3rd. feels like a thing of the past though this week so nice and sunset tonight a nice 7:10. by november 1st sunset will be at 4:59 p.m. we are losing two and a half minutes of daylight each day. a as far as tonight is concern, clear, comfortable 61. wednesday looks great. lots of sun. eighty-six in the city. poconos look at this stretch

temperatures in the upper 70's for rest of the week with lots of sunshine out there looking at the eyewitness weather seven day forecast looking great mid 80's with sun right through saturday. that front comes through sunday. not much more but cloud with highs still in the lower 80's. we will be right back.

there are no limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants can... release. and our senator, pat toomey, led the fight to keep it that way. carbon pollution, a major cause of climate change, leads to more asthma attacks in children. over a million pennsylvanians now suffer from asthma. and senator toomey took over a million dollars from polluters. tell senator toomey: it's time to clear the air. vote for the clean power plan.

it the is early. you said it earlier, one game, people. eagles haven't had a franchise quarterback since donovan mcnabb. for first 30 minutes last night it did not look like number five was walking through that door. sam bradford got off to a miserable start and threw a first half pick and offence had three, three and outs but in the second they caught fire and bradford finished with 336-o picks. it was his first regular season action in nearly two years. >> it was fun. you know, we lost tonight. just getting back out there and playing ball again. especially in the second half

was a blast, once we got things rolling. i don't think i have been that excited in a long time. the it feels good to get that feeling again. hopefully next week we can start faster and not dig ourselves such a big hole. >> meanwhile eagles highly hyped running game struggled all night long. demarco murray eight carries, 9-yard. ryan matthews three carries, 4-. bird had 63 on the ground but then again, they only ran it 16 times. >> we want to get more opportunities. i think, you know moth only myself everyone wants to get the ball as many times as they can to help this team out but. >> at the end of the day whether we rush it for 399-yard or pass it for 399-yard or whatever, that is not my concern, whether it is, what is the distribution. are we moving the football and getting the ball into the end zone is what we're concern with. how we get split is not important to us. >> baseball, phillies/nationals game two from the bank tonight, steven strasburg on the bump for d.c.

righty has career era under 2.5 under the phillies. fourteen years in the nhl, 11 with the flyers and now he is calling it quits. simon gagne is officially retiring at 35 years old. he is flyers ninth all-star leading scorer with 264 goals. he is tenth in points scored, with 535. as far as eagles you just hope they get off to a fast start against cowboys at the lincoln sunday. >> demarco goes 90 plus yard with the cowboys. >> mark it down right here. >> right here. >> we will be right back.

my favorite. bad news. the johnsonville factory burned down brian. it's terrible. well if you can't serve tasty sausage why are we even a family?

i may as well move out. well, if that's what yo... you're right. i'll stay. and tomorrow we're going to help johnsonville rebuild that factory. i'll take dinner in my room, with chocolate milk. make pasta tastier with johnsonville italian sausage. we don't make sausage. we make family. and sausage.

thanks for watching "eyewitness news" at 6:00. we are back at the ten on the cw philly. and then on cbs-3 at 11:00. up next, "cbs evening news" from new york.

up next with scott pull i. take care family, have a good >> pelley: scenes from a nightmare. flash flooring claims more lives as wildfires destroy hundred of homes. also tonight, on the eve of the republican debate, the surgeon is surging. a college freshman dies after fraternity hazing. now 37 students face charges, some including murder. and the battle of britain. >> never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. >> pelley: including a few americans. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: hell and high water have come to the american west, wiping away lives and property in a fla