According to a West Chester police criminal complaint, Ahmad Wasfi Al-Azzam forced his way into an elderly borough resident’s home in May, tied him up, beat him with a hammer in the face and head for an hour, and robbed him of his car keys, phone and cash.

During the assault, Al-Azzam allegedly filmed the man, who was 73 years old at the time, and whom he had met in an online chat room, and forced him to make statements about being a pedophile, threatening him with violence if he did not.

Police said that Al-Azzam also posted at least six videos of the beating — as well as other incidents from that night — in which the man is seen bound hand and foot. At one point, the victim is told to look at the camera and “say sorry for trying to meet up with a 15-year-old.”

There is no evidence that the man, who is not identified in the affidavit by West Chester Detective Cpl. Jerry Ferriola, was a pedophile or engaged in any illegal sexual activity with a minor.

Al-Azzam, 26, of Uwchlan, was taken into custody on June 11 and interviewed. At the time, he implicated himself in the West Chester assault, according to Ferriola’s complaint.

He is charged with kidnapping to facilitate a felony, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, criminal trespass, terroristic threats, possession of an instrument of crime, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal mischief.

Al-Azzam was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Marc Leiberman, who set bail at $1 million. A preliminary hearing is set for July 12. A phone call to Al-Azzam’s attorney, Eliot Marc Cohen of Philadelphia, on Friday was not immediately returned.

According to Ferriola’s complaint, Al-Azzam is a suspect in at least two other possible assaults, one unconfirmed in Phoenixville, and one confirmed in Mount Laurel, N.J. Images of the two incidents were posted on an Instagram account that Al-Azzam allegedly maintained, “realjuujika,” and shows a masked man stalking people at night and slapping one person in the face who promises “not to do it again.”

The investigation

The investigation began on May 26 when Ferriola and Detective Greg Cugino responded to Penn Presbyterian Hospital to interview the victim from West Chester, who was being treated for a “brain bleed” he suffered in an attack in his home in the borough’s southwest end.

During three interviews, the man told officers that between May 18 and May 22, he had been in a chatroom conversing with an unknown person who said he was 18 years old.

At some point, that person stated he was actually only 15 years old, and the man said he could not continue the conversation. The other person then offered to send him a gift, which the man accepted.

He was told a Lyft driver would soon deliver a milkshake and two cheeseburgers.

At about 11 p.m. that night — the man was not able to recall the exact date but investigators believe it was May 20 — someone knocked on his door and when he went to open it, a person, who was wearing a black mask, forced his way inside and bound his hands with packing tape.

He proceeded to beat him with a small hammer for about an hour.

He used a cellphone to record the beating, and forced the man to make statements about being a pedophile. He then ransacked the house, took the man’s wallet with cash and credit cards, and also the keys to his car, which was parked outside.

The man then told him not to bother calling the police because he had “a very fast car.”

When the man went outside the next day, he saw that three of the tires on his car had been slashed. He did not immediately call police.

The ‘realjuujika’

In response to a tip, detectives were able to review videos on Instagram tied to the “realjuujika” account.

Juujika is a Japanese literary character who seeks vengeance on those who had bullied him. They watched six videos of the assault on the man, and others from what was purported to be an assault on an alleged predator in Phoenixville.

When investigators contacted Phoenixville police, they learned that that department was investigating an incident involving a self-proclaimed child predator vigilante who was part of an organization called Juujika. The incident in which a man dressed in ninja attire — all black, with a balaclava — spoke with officers about his work catching men trying to meet young boys was noted by officers as occurring on May 1.

Phoenixville police were able to identify a car the man drove, and linked it to Wasfi Al-Azzam, the suspect’s father. But when they looked at his records, Wasfi Al-Azzam was too old to have been the man they encountered. They determined it was instead his son, Ahmad Wasfi Al-Azzam.

Because the man in Phoenixville had spoken about an incident he was involved with in New Jersey, borough investigators contacted police in Mount Laurel, who confirmed they had an open case involving a beating in a Dick’s Sporting Goods parking lot.

The suspect in that case was driving the same kind of car that had been identified in Phoenixville.

West Chester police were later able to track a Range Rover registered to Wasfi Al-Azzam, using license plate readers, and saw it enter the borough on May 20 around 10:30.

Then, using surveillance cameras from West Chester University, saw a man get out of a Range Rover and walk to the victim’s home. It left at a high rate of speed about 45 minutes later.

On June 10, detectives interviewed Al-Azzam at the borough police headquarters. In the interviews, which were recorded, Al-Azzam admitted being the creator and owner of the Instagram account, and admitted having items that police had found in his home and tied them to the beating, including a small hammer.

While initially he denied having anything to do with the assault on the older man, he ultimately admitted that he was the person seen in the videos beating him. He admitted slashing the tires on the man’s car.

No charges have been filed involving the incident in Phoenixville. Questions about possible charges in New Jersey were not answered after an email was sent.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

Damien Matthew Thiel, 21 of Warminster, Carroll County, Md., was arrested by state police after they were called to a home in West Nottingham earlier this month for the report of a dog that had been killed.

Thiel was charged with counts of cruelty to animals and neglect of animals and held in Chester County Prison before making bail. A hearing before Magisterial District Judge Scott Massey of Oxford is set for June 18.

According to an arrest affidavit filed by Trooper Kenneth French of the Avondale state police barracks, he and another trooper were dispatched to a home on Pleasant Drive for the report of a domestic disturbance due to a boyfriend, Thiel, killing a dog.

When they arrived, French spoke with Thiel, who related the following:

He was inside the home when the small black and white shih-tzu was continuously barking, causing him and his unnamed girlfriend to become annoyed. He yelled at the dog, he told the trooper, but the dog continued to bark, so he struck the pet several times.

He said that he then saw blood coming out of the dog’s mouth and so he took it outside and threw it out the front door into the front lawn, where it possibly broke its neck.

A witness to the incident said he watched as Thiel punched the dog in the face and belly, and the dog began to cry, according to the complaint. The witness said he did not see how hard the dog was punched, but when he saw Thiel outside, the man acknowledged that he had killed the dog.

French also said in his complaint that Thiel had said on a phone call to 911 that he killed the dog.

Cruelty to animals is a third-degree felony punishable by a possible sentence of 3½ to seven years in prison.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

But as a group of volunteers has discovered, many veterans of not only World War II, but also the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and other conflicts the United States has sent men and women to untangle, have not had the chance to visit the memorials that the nation has erected to deliver that honor.

And so enters an organization made up of thousands of volunteers across the country to give those veterans — some aging, many struggling, most just living their normal lives — the chance to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit the places where their service is commemorated.

“This gets pretty emotional,” said Pete Miller, a 71-year-old retired Uwchlan man who several years ago joined the Philadelphia branch of the national Honor Flight Network organization that arranges the trip to the nation’s capital for veterans at no cost to them whatsoever.

“This is a long overdue thank you for their service,” Miller said in a recent interview about the network, its mission, and what is in store for a group of more than 100 men and women this week.

On Saturday, June 15, Honor Flight will assemble a string of buses and travel from East Goshen to Washington, D.C., with the veterans to show them the sights — Arlington Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Air Force Memorial, the Navy Memorial, the Women Veteran’s Memorial, and finally the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorial.

“There are some pretty emotional moments along the way for most of them,” who participate, Miller said.

The group will leave from Saints Simon and Jude Church outside West Chester before the dawn’s early light on Saturday, and return around 5 p.m. the same day. When they return, the veterans will be given a demonstration of the U.S. Air Force Silent Drill Team and entertained by various sports mascots and cheerleaders.

They will also literally have the red carpet laid out for them, as well, Miller said, as a “welcome home” ceremony that many from the Korean and Vietnam wars did not receive.

“They are so grateful,” said Miller, who began his service in the Honey Flight Network by taking his own father, a WWII vet, on the trip, acting as his designated guardian. “They can’t express themselves enough sometimes.”

According to its website, the Honor Flight Network was co-founded by Earl Morse, the son of a Korean and Vietnam War veteran, and Jeff Miller, a small business owner and son of a WWII veteran. Morse, a physician assistant and retired Air Force captain, was working in a Veteran’s Administration clinic in Ohio when then the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., was finally completed and dedicated in May of 2004.

Morse repeatedly asked his veteran patients if they would ever travel out to visit their memorial. But, for most of these senior heroes in their 80s, it simply wasn’t financially or physically possible for them to make the journey on their own.

That’s when Morse decided to do something to help. He arranged to fly a number of veterans in the area to Washington to visit the newly opened memorial at no cost on private planes. Sometime later, Jeff Miller (no relation to Pete)  heard of the program and began expanding the effort nationally, bringing veterans to the capital by charter plane. Now, trips are made from across the country — from Hawaii to Maine. It is recognized by the government.

Pete Miller, a native of Plymouth Township in Montgomery County and graduate of the former Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown, said that since 2011, 2,800 or more veterans from the tristate area had been given bus trips to the capital. On Saturday, 175 are expected to make the sentimental journey.

Honor Flight provides food and refreshments for those on the trip and anticipates their comfort and medical needs, as many are older or disabled. They are provided with “uniforms” for the day, and even get “mail call” on their way back: letters from school students at schools in Chester County and elsewhere expressing their respect for them.

“I think you were very, very, very brave and frightened for risking your life for the world,” one card writer said. “You must have missed your family a lot.”

Miller said that the public is invited to become part of the veterans’ extended family by attending the return ceremonies at Saints Simon and Judge on Saturday, welcoming the veterans home.

For more information, visit the website at www.honorflightphiladelphia.org.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

First Assistant District Attorney Erin O’Brien on Monday asked Judge Thomas P. “Tip” McCabe to sentence her to a term of 2 to 4 years in state prison for the 2022 death of her son. McCabe agreed.

In doing so, McCabe rejected the plea of Moore’s attorney, Alexander Silow of West Chester, to keep his client in Chester County Prison, even if it meant structuring a sentence that would see her serve close to two years behind bars.

McCabe said he took into consideration the fact that Moore had denied to investigators that she had been abusing drugs at the time of her child’s death and that she refused to cooperate with the detectives in determining how the boy had died.

Moore’s husband, 37-year-old Jason Moore, last month was sentenced to five to 10 years in state prison after pleading to charges of endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree felony, and involuntary manslaughter, a second-degree felony.

O’Brien cited Amanda Moore’s lack of a prior record in her recommendation for a two-year minimum sentence, as opposed to her husband, whose record was significant.

The death of the 4-year-old was called a “devastating tragedy due to the defendants’ complete failure as parents,” by former District Attorney Deb Ryan in announcing the arrest of the Moores. Their arrests followed a monthslong investigation by Chester County Detectives, led by Detective Gerald Davis of the D.A.’s Child Abuse Unit.

An arrest affidavit filed in the case indicates that the child, who is not identified by name, most likely came in contact with a baggie of fentanyl that Jason Moore brought into the home the night before, after buying heroin and fentanyl in Coatesville. Both of the parents were regular users of the drug, according to the criminal complaint, despite Amanda Moore’s repeated denials that she did not use the drugs.

According to court records, there were seven other children living in the couple’s home at the time of the 4-year-old’s death.

According to the D.A.’s Office, on Nov. 29, 2022, at approximately 10:48 a.m., the Caln Township Police Department responded to a 911 call for a report of an unresponsive 4-year-old child at a Thorndale residence in the 3500 block of East Lincoln Highway in Caln.

At the scene, township police observed Jason Moore performing CPR on the unresponsive child. Medics arrived shortly after, took over medical care, and transported the victim to Children’s Hospital (CHOP) in King of Prussia, where he was declared dead.

Investigators learned that both defendants had left the residence at approximately 7 a.m. that day, leaving the victim and a younger sibling in the care of a 13-year-old forced to stay home from school. The 4-year-old was reportedly sick and needed attention.

Investigators did not find any signs of injury, bruising or scratches and it appeared that the victim was deceased for some time prior to being found by his older brother at approximately 10:37 a.m.

After an initial autopsy by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, there were no obvious signs of the cause of death. Detectives returned to the residence to collect items that were identified as coming in contact with the victim.

Among the items collected were two clear water bottles containing unknown liquids, a blanket, and a half-eaten lollipop. The lollipop was retrieved from the trash can inside the couple’s bedroom. Each item was tested and in January 2023, the stick portion of the lollipop was found to be positive for trace amounts of fentanyl.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

Doctors and counselors noted his developmental delays and urged his parents to seek assistance from professionals. His pediatrician expressed concerns to the couple about his vision and hearing. An aunt reported suspicious behavior on the part of Hunter’s parents.

The Chester County Department of Children, Youth and Families, or CYF, opened an investigation into his care, including possible physical abuse, and he was briefly removed from their home. Coatesville police twice found the young boy alone outside his home, wearing only underwear.

But Hunter’s parents, Mousa Abdallah Hawa and Holly Marie Back, apparently resisted efforts to oversee his care with professionals and kept him away from family members who were concerned about his welfare.

On July 26, 2023, all those warnings and red flags came to a head when police were called to the Hawa home and Hunter was found unresponsive and without a pulse. He was declared dead at the Chester County Hospital around 3:30 a.m. that day.

On Monday, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, the Coatesville Police Department, and the Chester County Detectives announced the arrest of Back, 40, and Mousa Hawa, 41, for charges related to the death of the 8-year-old child due to illegal drug exposure.

Both were charged with murder of the third degree, involuntary manslaughter, both felonies, and other related charges. Magisterial District Judge Gregory Hines set bail of $1 million for each and set a preliminary hearing for June 12. Both are being held in Chester County Prison.

According to a press release from the D.A.s’ Office, an intensive investigation revealed that the residence where Back, Hawa and the child resided was littered with drug paraphernalia. Investigators located empty heroin bags in three separate locations on the floor of the room where responding officers first saw him. Investigators also found a shoebox that contained hundreds of small glassine bags each containing blue fentanyl/heroin bags that were either empty or contained residue.

Samples from the child’s blood, urine, and hair were analyzed to determine what if any, illegal drugs were in his system. The blood and urine samples contained cocaine and fentanyl. The hair sample showed traces of fentanyl in the child’s system, indicating additional exposure prior to July 26, 2023.

Hawa, the son of a former Coatesville Area School District administrator who was caught up in a scandal involving racial text messages between the former superintendent and the former athletic director, is already awaiting trial on charges that he supplied the fentanyl-laced heroin to a 32-years-old Phoenixville man who fatally overdosed on the drugs.

In an affidavit filed by Chester County Detective Jonathan Shave and Coatesville Corporal Shawn Dowd, Shave laid out a history of the concerns that had been expressed about Hunter’s health, development and care dating back to when he was 18 months old.

Records showed that in December 2016, he was seen by medical staff from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP, and that the issues that were noted then “went (largely) unaddressed for the entirety of the victim’s life.” Those included language delays and behavioral problems and included a referral for early intervention.

In 2017, county officials with the Department of Mental Health/Intellectual Developmental Disabilities reached out to Hawa and Back to offer their services for Hunter. There was no response, however, and the file was closed.

His physician, Dr. Jordan Spivack of Coatesville, wrote a letter in 2018 to the couple expressing concern over the child’s developmental delays and urging them to seek intervention. But again, his records show no follow-up appointments.

In 2019, CYF started an investigation after Jennifer Back, Holly Back’s sister, went to Coatesville police to report her concerns about the couple’s drug use. Holly Back had been found in her car unconscious from an apparent drug overdose in March of that year. She was revived using Narcan.

CYF investigators reviewed two incidents in which Hunter was injured through what they believed was a lack of supervision. In one, a picture frame fell on his head, and in the other Hawa reported that he fell and hit his head on a park bench. An examination at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in May 2019 found no evidence of acute fractures, “however staff indicated they suspected child abuse,” the affidavit states.

When a CYF investigator interviewed Mousa Hawa at the couple’s home, he became upset with her presence and began banging his head against a kitchen wall and muttering. Both denied any illegal drug use, but Hawa said he took anxiety medication. After he took a few of the pills, the investigator, Megan Chichester, observed him “nodding off.”

In June 2019, Hunter was placed in the care of Jennifer Back, who began to routinely take the child for medical care and supervision, the affidavit states, including the referrals that Spivack had been recommending for months. “He began to improve under her care,” the investigators said. She provided him with healthy food and registered him in the Octorara School District.

But Jennifer Back was ordered to surrender custody to Hunter’s grandfather, Abdallah Hawa, before the school year started. It is unclear why that order was issued. When the transfer was made, Jennifer Back was prohibited from seeing the child and eventually, Hunter went back to living with his parents.

In 2021 and 2022, city police found Hunter outside, wearing only underwear, unaccounted for by his parents, who claimed that he had wandered out of the home — even though they did not call 9-1-1 to report him missing.

In interviews with Jennifer Back and her mother Barbara Back in September 2023, after the child’s death, they said that one of the last times they saw Hunter was at Easter dinner in 2023. The boy told his grandmother then that he did not want to go home with Hawa and Holly Back, and that Hawa “kept hitting him on his head. The grandmother said he did not look like he was being taken care of and that he was dressed inappropriately for the weather.

“His hair was not brushed, and he did not look good,” the affidavit quoted the grandmother as saying. “The victim child told her … that he hated his parents.”

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

The request for dismissal, called a “nolle pros” in legal terms, was accompanied by a letter by District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe laying out the facts of the case and the reasoning behind his decision to drop the charges against the trooper, Cpl. Michael Perillo.

“This is an irregular case that presents complex legal issues,” said de Barrena-Sarobe in his out-of-the-ordinary letter, which was also signed by the prosecutor handling Perillo’s case, Deputy District Attorney Kate Wright.

“In short, while there is ample probable cause to support the initial charging decision, after a review of the applicable defense at trial, I do not believe that the Commonwealth can meet its burden of proving this offense beyond a reasonable doubt.”

De Barrena-Sarobe said that he understood that at trial, Perillo’s attorney intended to argue that the horse “had to be hit by his car to prevent a potentially serious car accident.

“Because the law requires all individuals, including police officers, to value to lives of humans over animals, I believe that the necessity defense is valid and would be successful at trial,” de Barrena-Sarobe said in the four-page letter, dated June 4.

The judge presiding over the case, Bret Binder, signed the “noll pros” request on Tuesday, without comment.

Perillo’s attorney, Williams Davis of Media, Delaware County, expressed gratitude for de Barrena-Sarobe’s action.

“We always felt it was an unfair prosecution,” Davis said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “If my client had not taken action, things could have turned deadly. I believe this was the right decision, and we are happy that the new DA made what we believe was the right decision.

“He was trying to protect other motorists,” Davis said of his client.

Perillo, 55, of Bucks County, who at the time was a 15-year-veteran state trooper assigned to the Avondale barracks in southern Chester County, was charged in July 2022, seven months after the incident. He was suspended without pay and has been awaiting trial since while free on bail.

According to de Barrena-Sarobe’s letter and news reports at the time of the arrest, the incident occurred in the night hours of Dec. 28, 2021, on Route 1 in the area of that highway’s intersection with Route 10 in Lower Oxford, north of Oxford borough.

The criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania State Police Internal Affairs Division alleges Perillo responded to assist at an incident involving the loose horse on the roadway. Upon arrival, Perillo drove a patrol vehicle into the horse multiple times, causing it to fall.

Using the vehicle, Perillo pinned the horse to the pavement, where it was then euthanized by another state trooper.

Perillo was charged with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, both graded as a felony of the third degree and one count of cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor of the second degree.

In his recounting of the events, de Barrena-Sarobe noted that he had personally viewed dash cam footage of the incident, frame-by-frame, and had visited the scene. He also spoke with other attorneys in his office and learned about how to approach horses.

Prior to Perillo’s involvement, the horse — whose owner has never been identified publicly — had caused a single-car accident on Route 1 causing heavy damage to the left front of the Subaru wagon. The motorist driving the car, a woman, was not injured but the car’s airbag was deployed.

Two troopers arrived before Perillo and attempted, unsuccessfully, to secure the horse. Perillo, a supervising trooper, instructed the troopers on the scene to prevent any further accidents, “even if that meant the horse was killed,” de Barrena-Sarobe wrote.

The two troopers struggled to contain the horse, with one, who had experience with horses, trying to make a lasso out of a set of jumper cables to rope in the horse. When Perillo arrived, the horse was still loose and traveling the wrong way up an on-ramp to Route 1 towards Route 10.

Perillo then tried to use his patrol car to trap the horse on the road, tapping it with the front of his car. “In hindsight, this was unwise,” the DA said. The horse turned around and went back towards Route 1.

One of the two other troopers, who were not identified in de Barrena-Sarobe’s account, then fired five shots into the horse’s midsection, but the horse continued to run. Perillo tried three times to pin the horse against a rail, all unsuccessful and then rammed it from behind. It fell but got up and continued moving until Perillo was able to drive his car on top of the horse when it was knocked to the ground.

The horse was killed by a gunshot to its head.

De Barrena-Sarobe explained in his letter that a “necessity defense” must show that there was imminent harm to the public, that a defendant was hoping to avoid greater harm, and that there was no viable legal alternative to his or her actions.

“Here, the harm sought to be avoided was injury or death to anyone driving on Route 1,” de Barrena-Sarobe wrote. “The harm caused was pain and suffering to the horse with his patrol car.”

The D.A. did not shy away from criticizing the actions by the troopers that night, however.

“Watching Trooper Perillo strike the horse repeatedly with his patrol car is deeply disturbing,” he told the judge. “Many of the decisions made by the troopers that night worked to scare the horse further or direct it in the wrong direction, enhancing the potential danger to drivers on the road.

“But criminal law is not about hindsight,” he said. Perillo could not “hit pause” to consider all his alternatives. “Not does the law expect our law enforcement officers to respond to animals loose on a roadway with the knowledge and skill or. trained farmer.”

He said he intended to speak with the leadership at the Avondale barracks about how troopers, “do not find themselves in this situation again.”

That last action will likely satisfy equestrians in the area, who have been following Perillo’s case closely, even if the dismissal of the charges does not.

Stephanie Lawson, the editor and publisher of East Coast Equestrian, a monthly publication for horse owners based in Lancaster County, expressed some surprise at the decision to drop the case. “What that guy did to that horse was just horrible,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“If he was trying to do the right thing, but was going about it in the wrong way, who am I to say?” Lawson said. “But these things do happen. Horses do get loose. I hope the state police will take the opportunity to have their staff be involved with large animal training so that when this happens again there will be a much happier ending.”

Davis said Perillo will now take steps to be reinstated to his position in the state police. “He’s been in limbo since this happened,” he said. “He’d like to get back to work.”

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

Chester County Detectives and Coatesville Police on Monday filed charges of third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault of a child, endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment against Mousa Hawa and Holly Marie Back, the parents of young Hunter Hawa, who died in July 2023 of what the Chester County Coroner’s Office said was fentanyl, morphine, and cocaine intoxication.

Back was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Gregory Hines of Coatesville and held on $1 million bail. Hawa was not immediately arraigned, as he is currently being held in Chester County Prison on drug delivery resulting in death charges stemming from a 2023 fatal overdose.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 12.

“Parents have a sacred responsibility to care for their children,” District Attorney Chris de Barrera-Sarobe said in a press release Tuesday. “Day after day, these defendants prioritized easy access to drugs over the health and safety of their child, leaving deadly fentanyl within arm’s reach. It is inexcusable. And it is murder.”

The death of Hunter Hawa was announced by his parents in July 2023 on a “GoFundMe” page on which Hawa asked for donations from the public to help Back with funeral expenses.

“My name is Mousa Hawa I am asking for help to cover cost for my son Hunter Hawa,” the posting read. “He passed suddenly 7/26/2023 we are having him cremated and then we will have a service for him when we figure everything out date wise we will post it

“It’s just really hard we loved our son with all of our hearts and he was loved by everyone he met I really hate to ask for help but sometimes u have to out (sic) ur hand out and ask for someone to help,” the message read. “We are just lost and could use a hand if not we understand times are hard but if there is anything you can help with it will be greatly appreciated.”

The couple collected $895 out of a goal of $2,500 before donations ceased.

But in a criminal complaint, the lead investigators in the case — Chester County Detective Jonathan Shave and Coatesville Cpl. Shawn Dowd, both veteran child abuse investigators — said that Hunter Hawa had in fact died because of the reckless conduct of his parents, both of whom were users of illegal narcotics including heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine. Their lack of responsible supervision, the investigators indicated, led the child to ingest the same drugs they were using until they killed him.

“The victim child’s toxicology results indicate an environment where the victim child was repeatedly administered or given access to fentanyl and was administered or accessed cocaine,” their detailed, 12-page arrest affidavit states. To ward off the child’s possible use of the drugs in their home, they simply told him it was “medicine” and that he should not touch it.

“The defendants knew and acknowledged the danger their actions posed to the victim child, going so far as to specifically advise the victim child of the danger of their actions,” the affidavit states. Even though they had opportunities to remove Hunter from the home and the dangerous drugs, they instead “chose to place their young child in a situation in which death or serious bodily injury was an almost guaranteed result.”

The third-degree murder and assault charges are both first-degree felonies punishable by up to 40 years in state prison. The involuntary manslaughter charge is a second-degree felony, which carries a maximum term of 10 years.

In Hawa’s other case, he is charged with drug delivery resulting in death, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, as well as related charges, in the March 2023 fatal overdose of a 32-year-old Phoenixville man, Tyler Stout. Hawa was charged in January after a lengthy investigation.

According to Detective Thomas P. Hyland Jr., a drug trafficking expert with the D.A.’s Drug Task Force Unit, Stout’s lifeless body was found at an apartment on Gay Street in the borough on March 27, 2023. Police were able to gather evidence in the apartment, including Stout’s cell phone, that led them to a woman who had apparently been Stout’s contact to get heroin, Karen Tucker of Coatesville.

When Hyland contacted Tucker, she told him that she had sold fentanyl-laced heroin stamped “Bad Bunny” the evening prior to Stout’s death. She also told him that Hawa had been the local supplier of the “Bad Bunny” heroin in Coatesville and the surrounding area in the months prior.

Drug traffickers will routinely stamp the small bags that heroin or other drugs come in that they sell to identify it to local dealers as well as customers who want similar drugs.

According to Hyland in his affidavit, other law enforcement agencies had reported seeing the “Bad Bunny” heroin bags in their cases. In fact, in July 2023, Coatesville police and the county detectives seized several “Bad Bunny” stamped bags from Hawa’s apartment while they were investigating what he said was a fatal overdose. That time frame is consistent with the death of Hunter Hawa.

The two bags of “Bad Bunny” taken from Hawa’s apartment showed the presence of fentanyl and butyryl fentanyl, another synthetic opioid.

In November 2023, Tucker agreed to cooperate with the investigators in the case and then made consecutive controlled purchases of heroin from Hawa in December 2023. Police arrested Hawa in the city on his way to a third controlled sale of heroin to Tucker.

After his arrest, Hawa allegedly told Hyland and fellow county detective Oscar Rosado that he had sold the “Bad Bunny” heroin in the area for the last year, but had switched to other brands, marked “Bread Gang” and “Michael Myers” because he believed they were of better quality than the “Bad Bunny” drugs.

The county coroner, Sophia Garcia-Jackson, said that toxicology tests during the autopsy of Stout showed that the amount of fentanyl in his body at the time of his death was a lethal dose and played a substantial factor in his death.

In the case involving Hunter Hawa’s death, the investigators stated that on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, around 2:30 a.m. Coatesville police were called to an apartment on East Lincoln Highway in the city for the report of an 8-year-old in cardiac arrest.

According to the affidavit, Officers Jennifer Schreiber and Sam Snyder arrived to find the child on the floor and Hawa frantically giving him CPR. The child did not have a pulse.

Inside, the officers noted the presence of baggies used in drug packaging scattered around the room and a bag with medication bottles on the floor. When the officers said that the room might be labeled a crime scene, Hawa became belligerent and told the officers to leave the house. When Back told him she was going to the hospital with their son, Hawa allegedly refused, saying he wanted to watch what the police did and denied any responsibility for his son’s death. “He was more concerned about law enforcement searching his house than going to the hospital,” the investigators quoted an officer who spoke to Hawa and Back.

The child was pronounced dead at Chester County Hospital at 3:32 a.m.

At the hospital and in subsequent interviews with investigators from county detectives and city police, Hawa and Back gave inconsistent stories about the events leading up to Hunter Hawa’s collapse, including what he had eaten that night. They said he had complained of a headache and had been allowed to fall asleep in a reclining chair around 12:30 a.m. Two hours later, he was found off the chair.

Back at first denied using drugs, but later acknowledged that she and Hawa both were drug users. She said, however, that her son wouldn’t have gotten into the drugs they used. Hawa said the same thing, telling the child that the drugs were “daddy’s medicine and it will kill you.”

However, the autopsy results and a report from a forensic toxicologist showed that the child’s blood contained cocaine and fentanyl. His urine showed traces of opioids.

In addition to the information about the cause of Hunter’s death, the affidavit contains a history of troublesome incidents involving the child and his parents from 2016 until a few months before he died. He had developmental problems that were not fully addressed by his parents, but which seemed to improve when he was briefly placed with other family members under the auspices of the county Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The affidavit recounts an incident in 2019 in which Back was found unconscious in a car suffering from an apparent drug overdose, which she subsequently denied.  A CYF caseworker also reported seeing Hawa “nod off” during an interview in which he had to take “medication” for anxiety.

The child’s maternal grandmother told the investigators that one of the last times she saw him was at Easter dinner in 2023. The boy told her then that he did not want to go home with Hawa and Back, and that Hawa “kept hitting him on his head. The grandmother said he did not look like he was being taken care of and that he was dressed inappropriately for the weather.

“His hair was not brushed, and he did not look good,” the affidavit quoted the grandmother as saying. “The victim child told her … that he hated his parents.”

Hawa, 31, and Back, 40, have a history of petty crimes, including traffic offenses, retail theft and DUI, but Hawa played a small role in a widely reported scandal involving the Coatesville Area School District a decade ago.

In September 2013, Mousa Hawa’s father, Abdallah Hawa, was one of two employees of the school district who brought evidence of racist and sexist emails exchanged between then-Superintendent Richard Como and athletic director James Donato. The outcry that surrounded the emails led to the pair’s resignation and the eventual arrest of Como and Donato on theft charges. Como ended up spending three months in Chester County Prison.

However, the investigation into practices at the district by a county grand jury led to information about improper nepotism practices within the schools that involved Abdallah Hawa himself and his son, Mousa.

According to the grand jury’s report, Mousa Hawa was an employee at the district from 2005 through his resignation in 2009. Mousa Hawa was initially hired as a custodian but then became a security guard.

On January 25, 2007, Abdallah Hawa recommended that Mousa be transferred from his position as a security guard to that of a technology associate at Friendship Elementary School. The move was approved by the school board and gave Mousa Hawa a small raise and brought him under the supervision of his own father. Because Abdallah Hawa both supervised his own son and wrote his evaluations in 2008 and 2009, this was a violation of the nepotism policy.

Mousa transferred positions again in June of 2008, while he had pending criminal charges for resisting arrest, public drunkenness, and vandalism. Mousa pled guilty to misdemeanor resisting arrest in August of 2008. There is no record of any adverse impact on Mousa’s employment. Instead, he was given a raise in July of 2009.

Mousa Hawa resigned for “personal reasons” in August of 2009.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

But where did the bullets come from? Which gun matches which projectile? Are all the bullets from the same gun, or different ones? Who gets charged, and with what?

In the past, it could take six months to a year to get those answers, as the state police Crime Lab worked the evidence. Now, Chester County Detectives will be able to get the information they seek much faster within days.

On Wednesday, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and the Chester County Detectives announced that they had fully implemented Ballistics Tank technology into the investigative process of firearm identification. The “tank” — located in the basement of the Chester County Justice Center — will allow firearms recovered by police here to be tested almost immediately by a Chester County Detectives firearms examiner.

This is the final piece of equipment funded by a state grant, supported by an application by the Chester County commissioners.

In a release about the new equipment, District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said, “Giving law enforcement timely access to the latest technologies is critical to fighting gun violence. When used in conjunction with the existing (National Integrated Ballistics Information Network) program, this Ballistics Tank will give law enforcement leads that will solve crimes and stop cycles of violence that sometimes emerge in our community.”

In the release, Commissioners Josh Maxwell, Marian Moskowitz, and Eric Roe noted, “Everyone dedicated to law enforcement in Chester County — from the DA’s Office staff and our County Detectives to all municipal detectives and officers —  deserves to have the latest technology that supports speed and precision in solving crimes. It is why we approved funding through the American Rescue Plan Act for rapid DNA technology, and it is why we support this important equipment to strengthen ballistics evidence.”

When a gun is fired, it typically leaves a unique tool mark on the bullet and any fired cartridge casings (commonly referred to as an “FCC” or shell casing). Thus, a firearms examiner uses a ballistic tank to safely test-fire firearms not just for operability, but to also use the test-fired bullets and casings to conduct microscopic comparisons of ballistic evidence recovered from a crime scene.

According to the D.A.’s Office, there are large benefits of having a firearms examiner in-house.

These benefits include the ability to potentially determine the types of firearms at a crime scene that will provide investigators direction for their investigations, determine the number of firearms that were used at a crime scene, the ability to link ballistics evidence at a crime scene to a firearm much faster than previous methods, and the ability to enter evidence from a crime scene into a national data much quicker, which in turn will link the crime scene to other crime scenes where that firearm was used and link a firearm once recovered.

The Ballistics Tank is essentially a large water tank. When a gun is test-fired into the tank, friction from the bullet passing through the water slows the bullets down and eventually allows the bullet to sink to the bottom of the tank, thereby creating a pristine sample that can be compared to evidence from crime scenes.

The sample bullets and fired cartridge casings are then entered into the NIBIN database. There, a computer program is used to compare the tool markings to images of submitted ballistic evidence from shooting scenes across the country with the recovered firearms.

Any potential matches are then reviewed by a firearms examiner and immediately shared with investigators from those jurisdictions.

The District Attorney’s Office has joined with Bucks County, Delaware County, and Montgomery County to obtain NIBIN status this past year, which was funded through a federal high-intensity drug area grant program.

“Crime does not know municipal and county lines,” de Barrena-Sarobe said. “We are already using this technology to link crime scenes and follow up on possible illegal gun purchases. This is a pivotal tool for law enforcement.”

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant that funded this project totaled $450,000. It includes roughly $60,000 for the Ballistics Tank, with the balance of the grant funding already spent on personnel and other equipment.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

“I cannot get into who is paying my bills, but I will say that I am not pro bono,” attorney Lonny Fish said in a telephone interview, referring to the Latin term meaning that legal services are provided at no cost to the defendant. “I am not pro bono,” he reiterated.

Fish entered his appearance on behalf of Cavalcante earlier this month, after having met with Cavalcante in late April and spoken to him through an interpreter in prison. Cavalcante is a native Brazilian and speaks mostly Portuguese. Fish said he had been contacted about the matter by “somebody from his family,” meaning Cavalcante, but was not more specific.

Until Fish came into the case, Cavalcante had been represented at no cost to him by the Chester County Public Defender’s Office, both for the charges dealing with his escape from Chester County Prison and its aftermath, as well as the first-degree murder charges that led to his incarceration in April 2021. He brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend, Debra Brandao, in front of her two children at their home in Schuylkill after she threatened to expose his criminal past.

Fish, who has practiced law in the Philadelphia area since his graduation from Temple University School of Law in 2005 and maintains offices in both Philadelphia and Concord, south of West Chester, said he had only last week received the voluminous discovery in the case and had not yet determined whether he would take the case to trial. There are accusations of burglary, theft, and firearms violations involved, as well as the escape charge.

He declined to discuss what offer the state Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, may have extended. “It would not be fair to speak to that,” he said.

However, Fish did suggest that he would lean toward a non-trial disposition of the case.

“I haven’t filed any (pre-trial) motions yet,” he said. “I was hoping to see if it could be resolved before I file any motions. But I don’t think this case needs to go to trial. My job, as a defense attorney, is to help people say they are sorry. And I think that the community wants this resolved without a trial, so that is what we are hoping for.”

He had appeared before Judge Allison Bell Royer, who is presiding over Cavalcante’s case, last week and asked that the matter be continued until her next trial term, in July.

Fish, while a “seasoned” attorney, as the website for his firm, Liberty Law Team, states, is not among the more prominent or recognized defense attorneys in the county. He said that he had opened his office outside West Chester relatively recently, but that he had lived in Chester Springs for a decade before moving to Delaware in 2019. He said he was active in county Republican Party politics and was familiar with former Common Pleas Judge Lou Mincarelli, as well as Magisterial District Judge John Hipple of North Coventry.

In addition to Cavalcante, Fish’s recent clients include a woman who pleaded guilty Monday to shooting Cameron County District Attorney Paul Malizia county after a confrontation about a property transfer. The woman, Porice Diamond Mincy, was sentenced to four to eight years in state prison.

Malizia, who was wounded in the leg, was released from a hospital the day he was shot.

Coincidentally, Fish was named as a source in a news story last year about Cavalcante’s status as an undocumented immigrant and why he had not been deported after being arrested in Deborah Brandao’s murder. He told a reporter that keeping serious offenders in U.S. custody is meant as a deterrent, as it tells people they will serve their full sentence if they commit a crime.

In August, Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison plus 2½ to five years for the April 2021 murder of his girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, whom he stabbed dozens of times in front of her two young children outside their home in Schuylkill. The jury took less than 15 minutes before returning their verdict.

He fled the area briefly after the attack but was captured in Virginia and brought back to stand trial. He was housed at the county prison awaiting trial for more than two years.

Then, on Aug. 31, as he was awaiting transport to the state prison system to begin serving his mandatory life sentence, Cavalcante scaled an outside wall of the prison in a recreation yard. He made his way to the roof of the facility and then escaped after a corrections officer failed to spot him. He was on the run for two weeks until he was captured by a tactical team of U.S. Marshals and Border Patrol officers in a wooded area off Prizer Road in South Coventry on Sept. 13, after eluding a massive manhunt.

Cavalcante is charged with escape, burglary, theft by unlawful taking, criminal trespass, receiving stolen property, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and firearms possession. He is currently housed in SCI Green, the maximum security prison where he has been held since last fall.

Fish said he was unaware of reports that the broadcast streaming service Netflix is preparing a documentary about the escape and the manhunt that led to his recapture. “You’re the only person who’s contacted me so far,” he told a MediaNews Group reporter Tuesday.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.

Lonny Fish, a self-described seasoned criminal defense and personal injury attorney from Philadelphia who has limited experience in Chester County Common Pleas Court, entered his appearance on behalf of Cavalcante on May 6.

On Wednesday, he appeared before Judge Allison Bell Royer, who is presiding over Cavalcante’s case involving escape, burglary, theft and firearms offenses stemming from his flight from justice, and asked that the case be formally continued until her next trial term, June 26. He indicated, however, that he did not intend to bring the case to trial and was not planning on filing pre-trial motions.

Fish, a 2005 graduate of the Temple University School of Law, will replace First Assistant Public Defender Susanna DeWese, who represented the Brazilian native at his preliminary hearing in February, in which he was ordered held for trial on multiple counts.

He could not be immediately contacted for comment.

The change in attorneys raises a question as to who might be funding his legal defense. Cavalcante was represented by the Chester County Public Defender’s Office as an indigent client not only in his escape case but also in the first-degree murder cases that brought him to the attention of county law enforcement authorities in the first place.

He has no visible income, having been incarcerated since 2021.

In August, Cavalcante was sentenced to life in prison plus 2½ to 5 years for the April 2021 murder of his girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, whom he stabbed dozens of times in front of her two young children outside their home in Schuylkill. The jury took less than 15 minutes before returning their verdict.

He fled the area briefly after the attack but was captured in Virginia and brought back to stand trial. He was housed at the Chester County Prison awaiting trial for more than two years.

Then, on Aug. 31, as he was awaiting transport to the state prison system to begin serving his mandatory life sentence, Cavalcante scaled an outside wall of the prison in a recreation yard. He made his way to the roof of the facility and then escaped after a corrections officer failed to spot him. He was on the run for two weeks until he was captured by a tactical team of U.S. Marshalls and Border Patrol officers in a wooded area off Prizer Road in South Coventry on Sept. 13, after eluding a massive manhunt.

Cavalcante is charged with escape, burglary, theft by unlawful taking, criminal trespass, receiving stolen property, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and firearms possession. He is currently housed in SCI Green, the maximum security prison where he has been held since last fall.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.