U. Police make three key arrests

Several key arrests were made over the past week in connection with three separate incidents, including a recent armed robbery at CVS, the recent theft of medical equipment from Presbyterian Hospital and a robbery from the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house which has eluded police since last semester.

Penn Police officials said that on the night of Feb. 11, Frank Taylor, a 35-year-old black male, tried to rob the R&S; Strauss Department Store in Upper Darby, Pa. A chase ensued on foot, and the suspect was ultimately shot and wounded by police officers.

Following his arrest, Taylor was identified as the individual who had robbed the CVS store located at 3915 Walnut Street with a semi-automatic silver handgun on Feb. 4.

Taylor has also been linked to six other robberies, including one at the Rite Aid drugstore located on the 4600 block of Chestnut Street last month.

Taylor is currently hospitalized for gun shot wounds and is in stable condition.

According to police reports, last Friday, George Cullins, a 39-year-old black male, was arrested in connection with last October's robbery at Alpha Chi Omega.

On Oct. 29, three AXO sisters were reportedly robbed when an unarmed African-American man, whom police suspect is Cullins, entered a room of the sorority house through an open window and demanded money.

Police officials identified their lead suspect as Cullins after the students identified the alleged robber through the use of police mugshots.

There had been a warrant out for Cullins arrest since the incident occurred, but his whereabouts had been unknown to police until a tip was phoned in last week.

University City Police were informed that Cullins would be visiting an apartment on the 4900 block of Spruce Street. When he arrived at the apartment, police arrested Cullins and charged him with a number of crimes, including burglary, three counts of robbery, three counts of theft and three counts of reckless endangerment.

Cullins was taken to the 18th district and is currently in police custody.

"This is a big arrest for us," Deputy Chief of Investigations William Danks said. "It took so much time because we just couldn't find the guy."

Also on Friday, police arrested Brian Samuels, a 31-year-old black male whom they believe lives in one of the local shelters at 6900 Woodland Street, for stealing $234,000 of medical equipment from Presbyterian Hospital, located at 39th and Market streets, last Tuesday.

Samuels was arrested for trespassing in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. When police apprehended Samuels, they reportedly found that he was carrying several items that had been stolen from HUP.

During an interrogation by Penn Police detectives, Samuels confessed to also stealing the six defibrillators from Presbyterian Hospital.

Samuels told police that he had been leaving the hospital treatment center when he saw the black defibrillator case unattended and walked out of the building with it.

Upon inspection of the case's contents, Samuels apparently found they were useless to him and allegedly stashed the stolen goods in a trash can at 30th Street Station.

"We've been in contact with the Amtrak police," Danks said. "And we have retrieved some smaller boxes of items also stolen by Samuels, but not everything."

Police are continuing to follow up with Amtrak security to gain access to the station's trash route in an attempt to regain the expensive medical equipment.

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