Police Arrest Robbery Suspect Near Temple U. Campus; 7th Incident In Past Week
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - An attempted robbery near Temple University's campus Wednesday night is the latest in a string that has police and members of the school community on alert.
The latest incident happened around 8 p.m. at 18th Street between Diamond Street and Susquehanna Avenue. The university then sent out an alert saying the cops arrested a suspect linked to that particular incident.
This happened the same day the school said there were six robberies around the main campus area in a one week period -- seven in total counting Wednesday night's incident.
Temple spokesman Brandon Lausch says two of the incidents seem to be connected because they involve two or three armed suspects -- one taking place on the 1700 block of Diamond Street, the other on the 1600 block of West Berks Street.
Temple senior Andrew says that's alarming:
"Obviously you don't want anyone to get hurt. Robbery is a bad thing to begin with and guns are involved, only makes a bad situation worse."
As for what was taken, "in the majority of these, it's personal property such as electronics or backpacks, computers and others it's a cell phone," Lausch explains.
Lausch says they are releasing this information trying to stress to members of the school community to be aware of their surroundings, something Andrew takes to heart:
"You make the decisions beforehand that would put you in a situation like that, walking alone late at night, having your iPhone out, headphones in, you're making yourself a target."
Anyone with information on the robberies is asked to contact police.