Authorities in Pennsylvania are investigating whether two suspects accused of stealing more than half a million dollars from an armored car this week are connected to a string of recent heists in the Philadelphia area, a police official said Wednesday.
It isn’t clear if the robbery Tuesday in suburban Philadelphia is linked to the others, said Lt. Andrew Snyder of the Cheltenham Township Police Department.
But Snyder said his department is part of a joint investigation examining links to the previous thefts, including one in which suspects armed with AR15-style rifles are accused of stealing more than $2 million from a Brinks driver at a Philadelphia Home Depot in June.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Pennsylvania’s Eastern District announced three arrests in that case Wednesday on robbery and firearms charges.
The prosecutor’s office identified one of the suspects, Trayvine Jackson, 31, as a former employee of Brinks, the same company involved in Tuesday’s robbery.
In an email, a lawyer for Jackson described his client as a dedicated family man with a long-standing work history and no criminal record.
“At this early pre-indictment stage, it is pre-mature to comment on what are at this point mere allegations,” said the lawyer, David Mischak.
A lawyer for another defendant, Daishaun Hughes-Murchison, declined to comment. An attorney for the third suspect, Brian Wallace, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NBC Philadelphia reported that much of the money in the June robbery was recovered.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, which is involved in the joint investigation, referred questions about the probe to the FBI. A spokesperson for the bureau declined to comment. A spokesperson for Brinks did not respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday’s robbery occurred just before 10:30 a.m. at an H-Mart in Cheltenham, north of Philadelphia, the township’s police department said in a news release.
Security video released by the department showed a Brinks driver walking away from an armored truck. Seconds later, two people with hoods, gloves and guns can be seen running after the driver. Moments later, they run back the other way.
One was armed with an AR15-style weapon, according to the news release. The other had a handgun. They disarmed the driver and are believed to have stolen roughly $700,000, according to the release.
The robbers fled in a black Acura that was later found abandoned.
In another case on July 15, a Brinks employee opened fire on two men who he said tried to rob him in northeast Philadelphia, NBC Philadelphia reported. The men fled in a black late-model Nissan with tinted windows, according to the station.
In another case earlier that month, three people — including one armed with an AR-15 style rifle — are accused of robbing a Brinks employee in a nearby part of Philadelphia, the station reported.
It isn’t clear if there have been any arrests in the case or how much was stolen. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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