Police arrest suspects in robbery, burglaries

As students rallied for increased security after last week's shooting of College senior Patrick Leroy, University Police announced the arrest of one robbery suspect and another suspect for the burglaries of a University dorm and four fraternity and sorority houses. Despite the arrests, the wave of armed muggings near campus continued over the weekend. A University affiliate was robbed at gunpoint Friday at 40th and Pine Streets at 6 p.m., according to University Police. This is the fourth such incident at this corner since September 1. And yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m., a man armed with a gun robbed 7-11 at 38th and Chestnut streets of $280, employee Nagib Hossain said. Police took the store's security tapes as possible evidence. These incidents bring the total number of robberies near campus this month to 30. Last week, University Police officers arrested a man for allegedly robbing a faculty member after the suspect arrived at Philadelphia Police's Southwest Detectives Bureau for a preliminary hearing into separate charges of robbing a student. And two weeks ago, University Police arrested Nathaniel Fields for burglarizing five houses after several residents positively identified him from a set of photographs, University Police Investigator Frank DeMaio said. Investigators are still waiting for results of tests that will identify fingerprints lifted from the houses after the burglaries, he added. Fields, a local resident who was released from prison at the end of August, has been charged with five counts of burglary. Each count carries a potential jail sentence of 10 to 20 years. Police believe Fields broke into the Castle, the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house and the fraternity houses of the Kappa Alpha Society, Kappa Sigma and Sigma Chi, DeMaio said. Chief of Police Operations Maureen Rush said the department worked closely with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs to solve the burglaries. In several cases, DeMaio said, police believe Fields broke into the houses when no one was inside. Once, however, Fields entered a fraternity house during a meeting and through "guile and subterfuge" made his way to an upstairs floor and took items from the house, DeMaio said. Rush said it is important that police gather evidence of multiple offenses so that a conviction will result in longer jail time for the suspect.