Gunmen rob 10 people at American Diner

City and Penn police apprehended four suspects shortly after the incident Saturday night. Two University students were among those robbed. Four men robbed 10 people -- including two University students -- at gunpoint inside the American Diner at 42nd and Chestnut streets late Saturday night, police said. No injuries were reported. Philadelphia and University Police officers apprehended the suspects minutes after the robbery, according to University Police Sgt. Thomas Rambo. Rambo explained that at approximately 11:57 p.m., plainclothes officers from the Philadelphia Police Department's Burglary Detail Team observed a gray Nissan Maxima speeding south on 40th Street. As the officers began to investigate the vehicle, they heard a radio broadcast report that the diner had just been robbed, Rambo said. University Police officers joined in the chase, in which the car sped west on Walnut Street and turned left at 44th Street before crashing into a car at 44th and Spruce streets. Police arrested three suspects on the scene and another at 43rd and Locust streets after a two-block pursuit on foot. None of the officers or suspects was injured in the incident, and the woman whose car was hit at 44th and Spruce streets while stopped at a red light also escaped unhurt. The suspects -- Abdul Brown, Rasheed Scruggs, Bryheem Bell and Michael Wilson -- were arrested and charged with robbery and related offenses. They are currently in police custody at the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District headquarters at 55th and Pine streets, Rambo said. Rambo added that the suspects had been driving a stolen vehicle. Riaz Ahmed, the manager on duty at the diner during the robbery, said 10 people were in the facility at the time -- himself, five customers and four employees. Ahmed said he greeted the three men as they entered the restaurant. Two of them sat down, asked to see a menu and even ordered food while the third waited by the door. Ahmed said one of the men ordered, "Nobody move." He added that the same man ordered everyone to get down on the floor and give him their money. One by one, the men walked up to each customer in the restaurant, pointed a gun at each of them and demanded their cash and credit cards. The suspects also stole several jackets from their victims before fleeing the scene. Ahmed said the suspects robbed the two students of $40 and $23 in cash, respectively. The manager said that he himself was robbed of $80 in cash and that the suspects also took $70 from the cash register. Police recovered two pistols -- one nine-millimeter and one .380-caliber -- as well as all of the property stolen in the robbery. Paupau Awuklu, a cook at the diner, said he had begun to eat outside the kitchen when he saw the three men enter the restaurant. While the suspects were robbing the diner's customers, Awuklu said he went back into the kitchen and headed for the diner's office to call the police. But he added that one of the suspects followed him and threatened to kill him if he called the police. The suspect, however, eventually left the kitchen, allowing Awuklu to escape out the back door to where another telephone was located. From there, Awuklu said he dialed 911 and waited for police officers to arrive at the scene. "When I called the police I was afraid, very afraid," Awuklu said.

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