Criminal Justice

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Bryan Kohberger to serve life in prison without parole for killing four University of Idaho students. Friends and relatives delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation at the sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Allentown police allege Adam Makowka, 27, used a fire escape to enter Jerkera Battle's apartment and shot her to death with an AR-15. Makowka also is charged with trying to kill another man in the apartment.

Tamir Johnson, 35, got out of his car and swung a bat, hitting the other driver’s door. That driver fired one shot that struck Johnson, authorities said.

Jorge Suarez-Santiago, 33, was sentenced to 5-to-15 years in prison in the drug-induced death of his 22-month-old son.

A man whose body was found in a field near Salisbury Elementary School on Friday morning has been identified.

ICE has confirmed the arrest of a suspected murderer from Honduras, Yobani Bonilla-Bonilla, aka, Gilberto Perez-Alvarado, in Easton in June 2025.

Police are investigating after a 37-year-old man was found dead on the 1400 block of Gaskill Avenue in Salisbury Township.

Sammy Sasso, a former Nazareth Area High School state wrestling champion, is charged with possessing unlicensed guns and a controlled substance after police said they stopped the car he was driving because of an expired registration.

Witness said Jose Vladimir Jerez, 24, of Allentown, was driving erratically while trying to pass another car when he crashed his car into a utility pole in October. A 20-year-old passenger, Ezequiel Hernandez-Cartagena, died less than 90 minutes later.

A former Easton Area High School resource officer who pleaded guilty to sending a sexually explicit image of himself to a 16-year-old female student in 2024 was sentenced to 9-to-24 months in Northampton County Prison, it was announced on Wednesday.

An Allentown police officer was arrested and charged Tuesday with attempted homicide and related counts, court records show. He was ordered to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $750,000 bail.

Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year.

One hookah lounge owner said he bought a metal detector and is doing all he can to ensure customers are safe, but he wants help from police.

Pennsylvania State Police are investigating after one person was hurt Sunday morning in a shooting at the Waffle House on Airport Road, according to Trooper Nathan Branosky.

The Bethlehem Police Department is working to revamp and expand its surveillance capabilities throughout the city, with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

'After-hours' establishments could face huge fines — and potential closure — for violating nuisance-abatement ordinances, under a resolution introduced by the city council. Council was critical of the Tuerk administration's response to violence.

The Northampton County district attorney recently asked if the Bethlehem Police Department would dedicate an officer to a part-time role in a human trafficking task force.

An Allentown hookah lounge where a 29-year-old man was fatally stabbed over the weekend is facing eviction, according to court documents.

Isiah Yeager, 23, of Allentown, is facing a criminal homicide charge after police said he twice stabbed 29-year-old Kevin Tarafa, of Bethlehem, at Synergy Hookah Lounge on Allentown's East Side.

Pennsylvania State Police on Monday night said the driver, a 47-year-old man from Allentown, was not struck by gunfire, as state police initially reported. A trooper fired two rounds after a traffic stop Friday night at South Third and West Union streets. The driver was ordered to Lehigh County Jail.

Sunday’s fatal stabbing at Synergy Hookah Lounge on Union Boulevard in Allentown was “the last straw,” the building's owner said, adding he wants the business “gone like cancer.”

A trooper and a suspect both were shot and killed in a shootout in central Pennsylvania, just hours after a 2nd trooper was seriously injured after being shot by the gunman, according to Pennsylvania State Police.