Rapid Response from Airborne Assets Allows Efficient Arrest of Operator
A Pennsylvania man has received a sentence of 1 year in prison with 3 years of probation in addition to a $1,000 fine for his use of a laser on a police helicopter flying above. Last December the defendant, Raji Yusuf, a 36-year old already under supervised release, used a "high intensity green laser" to illuminate a police helicopter in flight near Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The cockpit was struck multiple times, temporarily blinding the pilots. After readjusting their vision, they homed in on Yusuf and found him in the parking lot of a mall below. The airborne officers caught him in the flood light from above, and ground responders arrived to arrest him once a