Philadelphia Police Takedown of Store Robber Goes Viral, Generating Positive Community Response
By KYW community affairs reporter Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police interrupted an apparent gunpoint robbery in Northwest Philadelphia on Monday morning, and the surveillance video of the suspect's arrest has gone viral across the Internet.
The two plainclothes officers took down the suspect peacefully as he brandished his weapon in the Dunkin Donuts store on the 6200 block of North Front Street.
Video shows the gunman walking into the store wearing a white mask, then pulling a handgun and pointing it at the store clerk. The plainclothes officers, on a robbery detail, enter quietly behind him, with guns drawn.
"You have moments -- seconds -- to make a decision," notes Philadelphia Police Department spokesman Lt. John Stanford about the officers who made the arrest. Stanford says the suspect complied with police orders and was taken down without incident. And it turns out that his gun was not quite lethal.
"Most of the time, I'd say just about all of the time, you cannot tell that a BB gun is such until you have it in hand," Stanford notes. And he says police officers face similar situations daily.
"You have to walk into these situations looking how to conclude them without injury, but sometimes it doesn't happen that way," he acknowledges.
Thousands of people have "liked" the police department's Facebook post and hundreds wrote comments thanking police for risking their lives daily and for a job well done.
