BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A Maryland soldier will be buried next week in Hagerstown, over 70 years after he was killed in action during the Korean War. Sgt. Roy C. DeLauter is set to be interred on April 22 at Cedar Lawn Memorial Park following a service from Rest Haven Funeral Home, according to details released by the U.S. Army. DeLauter, a Smithsburg native, was a member of the 7th Infantry Division. He was reported killed in action Dec. 1, 1950, as his unit withdrew from an area near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. The 21-year-old’s remains could not be recovered after the battle. But in July ..read more

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Hitachi Rail, a branch of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, is opening a new $70 million facility in Hagerstown to manufacture railcars, including the new fleet of all-electric 8000-series cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the company announced on Monday. The metro system last week announced a $2.2 billion deal with Hitachi Rail, which includes an initial order of 256 railcars and an option to build up to 800. State officials said the 307,000 square-foot facility on Greencastle Pike in Hagerstown is expected to employ 460 people. Hitachi Rail’s has ..read more

(CNN) — The Department of Defense is considering a request for the District of Columbia National Guard to assist law enforcement agencies in Washington, DC, that are preparing for convoys to descend on the area, even as plans for a Canada-style trucker protest in the US capital remain murky. “The Department is analyzing a request for assistance from the US Capitol Police and the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency,” DoD spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “Those agencies have asked for National Guard personnel to provide support at traffic control points in and around th ..read more

(CNN) — Winner winner, chicken dinner! It’s an age-old cheer, but certainly one that applies to a lucky Maryland family, whose recent trip to a grocery store turned into a $100,000 lottery windfall. “My wife sent me in to get precooked chicken for dinner,” a man from Hagerstown told Maryland Lottery officials. He bought the meal as instructed, but stopped by the store’s self-service lottery vending machine before leaving. “Really, I was going for the $421 million (Mega Millions jackpot),” he said. He inserted $20 in the machine, bought a $10 Mega Millions ticket and the first $10 scratch-off h ..read more

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ) — A Maryland man and a Kansas man have been charged with making separate threats to kill President Joe Biden, authorities said Monday. Ryan Matthew Conlon, 37, of Halethorpe, Maryland; and Scott Ryan Merryman, 37, of Independence, Kansas; were both arrested last week. Conlon’s case was sealed until Monday. He is also charged with making threats to blow up National Security Agency headquarters. Merryman was arrested after he traveled from his home to Maryland. Merryman called police in his hometown last Tuesday and said he was on his way to Washington, D.C., to see ..read more

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A Hagerstown-based medical helicopter transporting an infant girl to Philadelphia rolled, possibly multiple times, before going down in a hard landing in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania earlier this month, according to initial findings from the National Transportation Safety Board. On Jan. 11, the medical helicopter left from Hagerstown, picked up a 2-month-old girl at a hospital in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and departed for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A medic and nurse aboard the flight told investigators they heard a “bang” about 10 minutes outside of the children’s hos ..read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The pilot of a medical helicopter that crash-landed without loss of life next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia last week expressed gratitude to his crew and first responders as he was released from a hospital Sunday. The pilot, whose name has not been officially released, was wheeled out of the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center emergency room Sunday morning to applause from police and first responders and spoke to reporters before being taken home by ambulance with a police escort. “I’m just feeling fortunate, you know — I had God as my co-pilot tha ..read more

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A medical helicopter that departed from Maryland and was on its way to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia crash landed in the suburb of Drexel Hill, Delaware County, Pennsylvania authorities said Tuesday. All four passengers, including a 2-month-old girl, a nurse, the pilot and a crew member, suffered non-life threatening injuries after the helicopter went down for a hard landing just outside the Drexel Hill United Methodist Church church in the 600 block of Burmont Road, according to police and firefighters in Upper Darby Township. Both the pilot and the infant are in stabl ..read more

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WJZ) — A Pennsylvania man was arrested after allegedly setting fire to several wreaths laid at a Hagerstown cemetery overnight, the State Fire Marshal’s Office said. Troopers from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded around 1 a.m. on Friday to the Cedar Lawn Memorial Park, where witnesses reported seeing a man standing by a fire. There, they found 43-year-old Peter Custer, of Harrisburg. Officials said Custer took plastic wreaths from at least three burial plots and set them alight on an access road. During his arrest, officials said Custer claimed he was “trying t ..read more

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WJZ) — Every year during the holidays, Santa delivers gifts all around the world, but this year, old St. Nick was worried that he might not make it to Christmas. But hundreds of people in a Western Maryland Community came together to send some magic in Santa’s direction. “Santa” Bud Kline has been the Santa in Hagerstown, Md for more than five decades. Generations of families have snapped their holiday photos with Santa. But in 2018, he experienced some major health complications, and earlier this year, he had to go to the hospital when he developed a serious heart problem ..read more