Philly man charged with three Delco Wawa robberies

February 15, 2012|By Bonnie L. Cookand Josh Fernandez, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Radnor police today announced the arrest of a 34-year-old Philadelphia man in connection with the robbery of three Wawa stores since January in Lansdowne Borough, Upper Darby Township and Radnor Township.

Detective Sgt. George Smith of the Radnor police said that Rezekiel Harris was taken into custody Tuesday by Upper Darby police, and was awaiting processing there on robbery charges.

Harris allegedly confessed to all three armed robberies, including that of the Bryn Mawr Wawa, in which a shot was fired and a bullet fragment deflected off the floor and injured a store clerk's eye.

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Smith said Lansdowne Borough, Upper Darby Township, Philadelphia and Radnor Township collaborated to solve the spate of recent armed robberies.

The investigation was aided by surveillance videotape of a man in dark clothes brandishing a silver firearm.

Earlier this month that Radnor Township Police said they were seeking bandits who robbed a Wawa on the 200 block of Bryn Mawr Ave. Feb. 9.

One of the men, brandishing a gun, went behind the counter with the store employee and took money from a safe.

When he realized how little money there was, the man became angry and fired his gun into the floor. A piece of the bullet deflected into an eye of the Wawa employee, who has since been treated and released from an area hospital.

During the robbery, the second man prevented the three or four customers already inside from leaving the store.

The two men fled in a gold Ford Taurus with temporary paper registration plates.

Surveillance tapes show a black male, approximately 6-feet-tall, with black goatee wearing a blue, Old Navy sweatshirt, a Philadelphia Soul baseball cap, and black shoes.

His accomplice, a black male of the same height, and wearing a black sweatshirt with an Everlast logo across the front, stood at the store's entrance turning away incoming customers.

A reward of $2,500 was being offered in conjunction with Wawa for information that led to an arrest.

Radnor Police Superintendent William Colarulo said the pair were suspects in a Wawa robbery in Lansdowne on Jan. 28.

Additional footage from the Lansdowne Wawa showed the male wearing the same Everlast sweatshirt visiting the store again - after he participated in the Lansdowne robbery. The visit came right before the man robbed the Bryn Mawr Wawa.

"We know he's armed and dangerous," Colarulo said of the gunman. "They're obviously targeting Wawa's in the Delaware County area."

"It's clear to me and the investigative staff, from the interviews we've taken, that they're not going to stop their behavior, if they're brazen enough to go into the same Wawa they robbed a few days before," he added.

Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at bcook@phillynews.com.

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