Police are close to arresting a suspect wanted in connection with two armed robberies of students on the 4000 block of Baltimore Avenue recently, University Police officials said. In the two incidents -- which occurred Thursday and Monday -- a perpetrator followed the students into their houses, brandished a black semiautomatic handgun and threatened to kill them if they did not give him their money. Noting that the two robberies are "definitely connected," Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush said University Police officers would "hopefully" make an arrest last night in connection with the incidents. "The investigation is going very nicely, and we think we're zeroing in on a particular individual," she said, adding that several additional undercover and uniformed University Police officers were scheduled to patrol that area last night. But as of late last night, officers had not yet made an arrest in connection with the two robberies. In the first incident, which occurred at approximately 11:30 p.m. last Thursday, College sophomore Ernest McMeans said a perpetrator followed him and his sister into his residence at 4009 Baltimore Avenue -- two houses away from the site of Monday night's robbery. The perpetrator, whom McMeans described as a 20-year-old male, had a "very unique gun" covered with numerous white lines. After McMeans told the man that he did not have any money, the robber stole a bicycle and two T-shirts before fleeing the scene. McMeans said the perpetrator "reeked of alcohol and other things," adding that he identified the suspect -- whose fingerprints were found on the house's front door and on McMeans' PennCard -- in a police mugshot. McMeans said he read about Monday night's robbery in yesterday's edition of The Daily Pennsylvanian and noticed that "this guy robbed us the exact same way." In the second incident -- which occurred at approximately 10:30 p.m. Monday -- a man robbed College sophomores Lindsay Fletcher and Chris Page of $53 and a PennCard at gunpoint in their house at 4015 Baltimore Avenue, the students said. The perpetrator pushed Page and Fletcher into a first-floor storage room next to the front door, then took out a black semiautomatic handgun and threatened to shoot the students if they did not give him their money. Five of the students' housemates were home at the time but were unaware that a robbery was occurring. No one was injured in either of the incidents. And in an unrelated incident, Rush said University Police are also investigating two early morning robberies last Sunday, which they believe were committed by the same individuals, at 43rd and Spruce streets.
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