Briefly... CITY/REGION

Burglars attack couple

A pair of burglars terrified an elderly couple in Bustleton early yesterday.

Police said the intruders broke into the couple's home, on Murray Street near Hoff, through a kitchen window about 6:30 a.m.

The punks attacked a 75-year-old woman with pepper spray, and took off with some of the couple's belongings. Neither the woman nor her 77-year-old husband reported any injuries.

Police described the intruders as white men in their early 20s. Both wore dark masks.

Tipsters can contact Northeast Detectives at 215-686-3153.

Body in boarding home

A woman was found dead in a West Philadelphia boarding house yesterday morning.

A resident found the woman unresponsive - and bearing burn wounds - under a mattress inside a property, on Spruce Street near 51st, at 6:42 a.m., police said.

Medics pronounced the woman, who was believed to have been in her late 30s or early 40s, dead at the scene. No arrests were made.

Cops probe woman's death

A young woman was killed in her Kensington home yesterday, police said.

Margaret Molina, 18, was found unresponsive by her father inside a rowhouse, on Hartville Street near Clearfield, about 6:20 a.m., a police source said. She had bruising to her head, neck and face, and was pronounced dead at the scene minutes later. Initial evidence indicated she was strangled to death by her attacker, the source said.

Investigators believe an argument may have lead to Molina's slaying. No arrests were made last night, but police believe whoever killed the woman knew her, as there were no signs of forced entry at the house, the source said.

Man gets ARD in cop assault

A man who was accused of punching an off-duty police captain in Queen Village in December entered the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) court program yesterday in which his misdemeanor charges are to be expunged after he successfully completes a probationary term and pays a fine.

Declan Duggan, 43, admitted no wrongdoing by entering the ARD program. "He's only doing this because he knows it's a guarantee he will not have a record," his attorney, Christine Godwin-Pierce, said afterward. "He doesn't believe he did anything wrong."

Duggan was accused by then-Capt. Ray Evers, 45, of unexpectedly punching Evers on the left side of the face after Evers saw Duggan holding his cellphone and videotaping Evers and his girlfriend while they were having an argument, on Howard Street near Queen in Queen Village about 1:40 a.m. Dec. 6. Evers said in a complaint to police that he had identified himself as a cop to Duggan and told him to mind his own business. He said he chased Duggan after Duggan punched him and ran away, and that Duggan then hit him again, causing Evers to sprain his right ankle and fall. Evers said the two then struggled while he was trying to place Dugan into custody, but Dugan got away.

Duggan was charged with simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and harassment.

- David Gambacorta, Julie Shaw and Vinny Vella