>> reporter: yes, jim, after a 17 hour manhunt undercover narcotics officers captured griffin on alden street and investigators believe they have recovered the gun believed to have been used to shoot officer james mccullough. police say after carjacking a woman at 59th and market scott give you fin and samir coyett saw mccullough and his partner approaching after the victim flagged down the officers. >> when the shooting suspect first gets out the vehicle there's a slight wrestling, tussling right then and there and then the suspect starts to take off. officer mccullough starts to chase him. at that point he turns, he shoots and he shoots him one time in the leg. >> reporter: that shooting suspect griffin got away. coyett did not. thanks to whom police are calling a second robbery victim moments before the carjacking. >> the nonshooting suspect fled towards the el station at 60th and market. he actually ran past the first

individual that he had robbed and his friends who caught up with him, physically subdued him until the police came and arrested him. >> reporter: police say a bleeding mccullough used his police issued tourniquet after the shooting and fellow officers rushed him to penn presbyterian hospital. mccullough is a two year veteran of the force a young father set to be married soon. a fan of rugby and who police are calling a proud example of the bravery men and women in blue exhibit each and every day. >> just happy that officer mccullough is going to recover and he's going to be okay but his partner responded the way he was supposed to as well as all the men and women out there. >> reporter: and police say griffin has been arrested 14 times and just last week he had gun charges dismissed for lack of evidence. as for mccullough he remains in the hospital and is expected to be released sometime tomorrow and is also expected to make a full recovery. live outside of police

headquarters, chad pradelli, channel6 "action news." jim. >> thank you, chad. a crossing guard was killed this afternoon when he was hit by a car in trenton. police say the man was working at the intersection of route 129 and lalor street. witnesses say a red truck hit another car and the impact sent the truck through into the crossing guard. it happened at 3:30. fortunately nobody else was hurt. the truck driver was put into a police car but no charges have been announced. philadelphia police today provided the absolutely gruesome details in the death of four-year-old tahirah phillips on saturday. and police have now charged her 30-year-old father with her killing. "action news" reporter vernon odom is live in kensington tonight and vernon, what is the latest on this? >> reporter: jim, police say the murder suspect has now been arrested. he's formally charged with murder. he confessed completely they say but only after trying to pin the murder on his five-year-old daughter.

this is a neighbor's recent photo of four-year-old tahirah phillips who died of a gunshot wound to the head saturday afternoon inside her kensington home by the hand of her own father. under arrest and charged with murder, her father, 30-year-old maurice phillips police say the child was watching tv with her six siblings ranking in age from 13 years to seven months old when her father entered the room and pulled out his gun. >> comes into a room, a very small room, all seven of the kids are in there watching tv. he takes the gun out and in a reckless manner starts waving it and pointing it and it discharges one time and strikes his daughter. >> reporter: police say phillips tried to frame the killing on his victim's five-year-old sibling. >> he took blood and actually wiped it on her shirt to try to even more so show that she's the one that fired the lethal shot but once we brought him into the homicide unit obviously we broke down his story and he quickly admitted to his shooting.

>> reporter: police say phillips turned himself in at the police district before they had to go out and bring him n east mayfield street sits in one of kensington's toughest neighborhoods, the bad lands where intimidating drug dealers man the corners violence is frequent. but this one shocks this neighbor who says if convicted he, maurice phillips should never see the streets again. >> it's a stupid idiotic act. he was completely reckless in doing this and unfortunately, you know, a four-year-old has lost her life behind this. >> reporter: jim, police sources tell me tonight that phillips told them he played with that handgun in front of those seven children very frequently. live in kensington, i'm vernon odom, channel6 "action news." >> vernon, thank you. police say there a pet dog was killed this morning when its owner confronted three criminals in bucks county. two men and a woman were trying to steal a motorcycle

from a driveway on golden gate road in levittown but the homeownerrer came outside to stop them. that's when one of the suspects fired a shot and killed the homeowner's dog. the gunman remains at large. his two accomplices have been arrested. a man and his wife survived when a large tree crushed the front of their suv. it happened at 10:30 this morning. the couple from boston was driving to see family in philadelphia when the tree came down landing across the front windshield of their volkswagen. it happened along the 7300 block of mccallum street in mount airy. it happened so fast there was no time to swerve out of the way. >> my husband saw it coming but there was just nothing you could do really. >> smashed in the windshield and the front. i'm sure if it had been another foot or so farther back we would have a rather different outcome. >> both of them walked away with just a few scratches from the broken glass.

temperatures tried to hit 80 degrees late today on this gorgeous spring day there felt a lot more like summer. the weather will cool as we progress through the week but the sun isn't going anywhere. let's go outside to cecily tynan with the latest. did we hit 80 today. >> we actually hit 82 today. it doesn't feel like april at all. it feels like the summer time and we have been warming up pretty dramatically over the past few days. it was a beautiful weekend, plenty of sunshine. saturday 67 degrees, sunday 73. today philadelphia hitting 82 degrees. that's a whopping 17 degrees above the average high for this time of the year and you can see it really depends on your location because inland temperatures hovering close to 80 degrees, allentown 80, trenton 78, wilmington and reading 79 degrees. but along the coast with that ocean temperature of 53 degrees, they're getting a sea breeze so right on the beaches temperatures in the low to mid 60's so you definitely need a sweatshirt if you're on the beaches at

this hour. now, satellite6 along with action radar slowing that we do have some changes on the way. that high pressure ridge is beginning to break down and those clouds that are streaming south from new york state is a cold front. it's coming through a back doorway, coming down from the north and this is creating cooler air so boston finally dropping down to 50 degrees with a wind chill right now after hitting 67 degrees earlier today. so, it was a warm day for the boston marathon. that cooler air will be heading our way. that being said, tomorrow's not going to be a cool day, it won't be quite as warm as today but temperatures still above average. it cools off more on wednesday and by the end of the week we'll really need the rain. we're talking about nine days without a drop of rain. i am tracking showers. i'll let you know when they come in in the full accuweather 7-day forecast. jim. >> thank you, cecily. the presidential campaign comes to pennsylvania this week both democratic candidates have events in the keystone state ahead of the primary next tuesday.

bernie sanders will host a rally tomorrow night at 7:00 at penn state and on wednesday, hillary clinton will be in philadelphia at the fill more in fishtown. that event begins at 6:30 wednesday night. on the republican side, donald trump has not announced any additional stops in pennsylvania but ted cruz will be in philadelphia tomorrow night. john kasich will hold a town hall meeting in media, delaware county on thursday. there is word of a possible break through in atlantic city. a state takeover plan approved by the senate has been facing opposition from assembly speaker vincent prieto. he planned to put forth his own version of the bill but today he said that that is on hold, that after a talk over the weekend with senate president steve sweeney. they are discussing a possible compromise in atlantic city. coming up on "action news" tonight, vandals strike a local italian american heritage center and it is not the first time. and the flyers get ready for game three of their

planning to honor ed snider on home ice tonight. those stories plus cecily returns with more on the accuweather 7-day forecast. that and more when "action news" continues tonight. >> ♪ fight back and rebuild

an economy. so does she. we need jobs that provide dignity and a bright future. new penalties to stop companies from moving profits and jobs overseas. for businesses that create manufacturing jobs, a new tax credit. and let's invest in clean energy jobs, with 500 million solar panels installed by the end of her first term. a real plan to create new jobs and industries of the future. hillary clinton. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. >> delaware state police investigating the cause of a collision between an suv and a school bus in newark. firefighters rescued an 86-year-old man from the suv. the vehicle landed on its roof at 6:50 this morning along baltimore pike -- old baltimore pike. paramedics took the victim to christiana hospital in serious condition. students from kuumba academy were on the school bus and

fortunately nobody was hurt; none of the kids were hurt. police in hamilton township are trying to track down the vandals who obviously have zero respect and zero regard for other people's property. this is a repugnant act of vandalism and violence and new jersey correspondent nora muchanic has the story. >> i can't take this kind of stuff. >> reporter: john scarpatti in hamilton is horrified one day after electing a new statue outside the before this on liberty street vandals toppled the 800-pound figure from its perch breaking it into pieces. >> concrete don't have no rods in it and the way it hit, the way it hit it just snapped it in half and then broke the arms and hands off. >> reporter: it happened the friday before last and it's not the first time vandals have hit this italian american club. not long ago someone defaced this statue of christopher columbus that stands at the corner of the property.

>> last year columbus we had a new columbus statue. they painted the face black and then they wrote, you know, the f word and some other logos. >> reporter: members are wondering why vandals would target this and try to destroy statues that were put out to beautify the property and commemorate their italian heritage. >> trying to be proud of our heritage and we're trying to show it and they're just tearing us down. >> reporter: the statue is part avenue unique collection of religious figure that is includes these roman centurian statues. police have checked security cameras for leads without success. the volunteers are installing their own camera system at the center. >> it's coward dis. they can't stand to see somebody have something great in the community. >> reporter: the broken statue is being kept behind the building and is being replaced with another figure. the italian american heritage center is offering a reward for information leading to the

arrest of the vandals n hamilton township, nora muchanic, channel6 "action news." >> philadelphia mayor jim kenney continued his push today for universal pre-k. he read to children at a pre-k center at lasalle university. it is one of the places that would benefit from his proposed sugary drink tax. the mayor was also joined by representatives from the within reach campaign and the philadelphia federation of teachers. a little girl in delaware county got the royal treatment today from her school mates. [cheers and applause] students at pennell elementary school in aston cleared as a police escort brought cameron mccarthy home from her final treatment at nemours a.i. dupont hospital. she's a second grader and has been battling ewing is that correct coma a form of bone cancer. the whole community has been pulling for her and they were quite a welcome today.

[cheers and applause] are you sick of harrisburg politicians like steve santarsiero, who will say or do anything to advance his career? he claims he wrote pennsylvania's gun safety law. but the truth is he didn't. there is no law requiring universal background checks for all gun purchases. his campaign even bragged that he passed 54 bills. in fact, 7 years in harrisburg, steve santarsiero has never passed a single bill into law. i'm shaughnessy naughton. i approve this message because i am not a career politician.

that's what congressman for wsestak did.ceos - sestak was one of only eight democrats to join republicans to allow ceos of bailed out banks to pay themselves unlimited bonuses using bailout money. an "outrage," according to newspapers. for working families - katie mcginty for senate. she'll invest in education, not ceo bonuses. and fight for pay equity for women. helping families - not wall street. katie: i'm katie mcginty and i approve this message.

>> flyers obviously can't afford to go down three-nothing. they're on home ice finally. >> technically it's not a must win but like you said they're down oh-two. they're back at home. flyers can not lose this game. besides they got to do it for ed tonight. jeff skversky live at the wells fargo center with more on the tributes. >> reporter: hey, jamie. the flyers say this place will be rocking tonight for game three against the washington capitals. and that will start before the puck even drops. flyers fans walking into the building will get this t-shirt with ed snider's face in their flyers logo right there and every he fan that walks into the building will also receive a bracelet that will light up during the pregame video tribute and let's take a look at the ice. ed snider's initials ems painted into the ice filled with tributes left and right all over the building. of course the ultimate honor would be to win game three. and this series against the

capitals. they have to focus, though, on getting the puck to the net and beating braden holtby tonight in game three which will be emotional. >> we're here to win a hockey game and we have a game plan. we got to follow it and obviously we're going to have a little bit of -- little bit more emotion before the game but when the puck drops we just got to worry about the game. >> it's going to be a lot of energy in the building. you know, and there's going to be some emotion in the building obviously with the pregame ceremony for mr. snider but, you know, you have to embrace those emotions and that energy. >> reporter: former flyers captain mike richards returns to the wells fargo center for the first time in the playoffs of all the players in this series he has the most playoff experience. and from his experience, even here in philly, he knows the flyers will be tough to beat tonight in game three at home. >> they're going to come out hard.

they're going to play their best and we have to match that. the first five minutes is going to be big for us and we can't sit around waiting to see how they're going to play. we have to go out there and try to initiate a little bit ourselves. >> reporter: and the flyers have to find a way to score. only one goal. braden holtby stopped 60 of the flyers 61 shots and they're oh for eight on the power play. as claude giroux says they have to get in holtby's face tonight in game three, the puck drops at 7 o'clock. we're live at the wells fargo center, jeff skversky, channel6 "action news." jamie. >> thanks jeff. the nfl draft now 10 days away and so the eagles under new leadership the pressure is on. of course the rams move up to number one. reports are they want jared govern. so is carson went the guy they want. gov and went similar.

>> they're very close. similar characteristics as quarterbacks, good height, good size, good arm strength, mobility. they're very similar, smart intelligent guys that obviously are going to play i feel like going to play a long time in the national football league. >> this draft is going to be fascinating. there's so many things they can do. quarterback. >> quarterback. offensive lineman. >> be nice. >> well, what they need. cecily tynan with the accuweather forecast when we continue in just a moment. >> ♪

the tthan the bottom have mo100 million americans.nt how does that happen? well, they use lobbyists to get special tax breaks. my plan -- close the tax loopholes and make them pay their fair share. seniors who've worked hard deserve the opportunity to stay independent, pay their bills, and most of all, enjoy their grandchildren. it's time to bring back a basic american value -- fairness. i'm bernie sanders, and i approve this message.

>> ♪ >> we have breaking news from the mayfair section of

philadelphia. chopper6 is above the 2800 block of cottman where as you can see firefighters are still pouring water on what is a well known and popular neighborhood tavern. the owens cafe got lit by flames this afternoon just about 6 o'clock. we have no reports that anybody was hurt. but a strip of stores there was hit by fire. the main brunt of it all felt by the owens cafe. let's go to that accuweather forecast and cecily tynan. >> and jim, i had an informal poll on my facebook page saying do you like it this warm or is it too warm too soon? most people like it is. some people say they want their springtime back and it is coming back. felt like summer today. didn't feel like april. trying to make everybody happy. >> it's okay with me. >> storm tracker6 we got some changes on the way. i think you'll like them though. showing we have dry conditions out there. the dewpoints are extremely low.

generally in the 20's. so, when you have dewpoints that low, the sky looks like this. philadelphia international airport this is live on sky6 showing we've got the blue skies and the sunshine. the air is so dry can't even get those puffy cumulus clouds to erupt in the afternoon, but temperatures certainly soaring. 82 degrees the high today after a morning low of 47. the normal high 65 degrees. so, that's 17 degrees above normal. but nowhere near the record. the record high 94 set back in 1976. but this is typical for the seconds week of june. not typical for april. philadelphia 81 currentsly, allentown 80. reading and wilmington 79. trenton 78 degrees and then when you get closer to that oh, its ocean temperature still chilly this time of the year, 54 degrees. you get the winds off the ocean with that sea breeze, a lot cooler on the beaches, temperatures only in the low to mid 60's. compare this to 24 hours ago. except for the poconos,

temperatures running five to 11 degrees warmer than yesterday but now temperatures are beginning to back off a little bit for tomorrow and wednesday. satellite6 along with action radar showing we still have this very strong ridge of high pressure. this is keeping this storm system out to the west at bay, brought record flooding to houston, now some very heavy rain, parts of louisiana some heavy snow in colorado. but that system can't move to the east. so, what will happen, we've got another cold front that ribbon of moisture across canada. that will move through from the back door. that will move through from the north tomorrow. it will dry up as it does but it will bring us slightly cooler air. so, tonight mostly clear, a pretty comfortable night, overnight low 42 in the cooler suburbs about 56 degrees for center city. tomorrow once this front moves through it will be breezy. temperatures still above normal but not as warm as today with a high of 75 degrees. we'll see some clouds as it moves through earlier in the day but generally good amount of sunshine. as we head into wednesday,

another area of high pressure moves right over us. that will bring us loads of sunshine with a high of 69 degrees. so, really beautiful weather on wednesday but not nearly as warm as today and if you look at the possibility of any rain, we will stay dry right through thursday. that's nine dry days in a row. finally on friday a chance of some showers, 60 percent chance. best chance will be later in the day. so, the exclusive accuweather 7-day forecast, tomorrow breezy, not as warm as today but still very mild with a high of 75 degrees. wednesday gorgeous. not a cloud in the sky. 69 degrees. then on thursday, we do see some increasing clouds with a high of 74. friday clouds with a possibility of some showers, 77 degrees. passover begins at sundown and the weekend is looking beautiful. a few morning showers on saturday but then the sunshine is back by the afternoon. 69 degrees. sunday mixture of sun and clouds with a high of 69 and monday partly sunny and mild with a high of 72 degrees.

so, nice weather tomorrow but not quite as warm as today. >> so far this month the below normal? >> temps right now should be above normal this month but we had a few cool days but. >> few cool days. >> we had a few very cool days. nine days ago we had snow. >> so it's wavering. >> it's wavering but it's going back up. >> all right. thank you. abc's "world news tonight" with david muir next on channel6. "action news" continues at 10:00 that's on phl17 with brian taff sharrie williams adam joseph and ducis rodgers. then please join us for "action news" at 11:00 here on channel6. for cecily tynan jaime apody ducis rodgers and the entire "action news" team, i'm jim gardner. we hope you'll join us at 11:00. >> ♪

i'm backing josh shapiro for attorney general because things have to change. we need criminal justice reform because our prisons are far too overcrowded. we have to deal with drug addiction through treatment, not incarceration. and use our prison for those who are truly violent. and we need to get illegal guns off our streets. i'm joining with president obama and leaders across our area in supporting josh. josh shapiro will be an attorney general committed to fairness and equal justice.

breaking news tonight. an american city under water. deadly floods and dramatic rescues under way. families using anything that floats to escape. schools closed. thousands without power. the driver swimming from his sinking car. a reporter pulls him to safety. and more rain on the way tonight. also breaking at this hour, race against time. the death toll climbing. three major earthquakes in just three days. could america's west coast be next? battle for new york. the final push. bernie sanders facing a must-win in hillary clinton's home state. she fends off a new attack from donald trump. >> i think he's the donkey of the decade. desperate manhunt. the urgent search for two brothers on the run, suspected of killing their neighbors. police unable to find the victims. and the wild scene at the zoo. a woman jumps the fence into the