The 7th Police District Advisory Council has announced the winners of the district’s Officer of the Month awards for July and August.
The July honors went to Officers Mary Luce-Caterino and Michael Murphy, who captured the suspect in a home invasion and beating of an 86-year-old woman after the same suspect attempted to break into another elderly woman’s home.
Luce-Caterino and Murphy made the arrest on July 11. At about 10 p.m. a man armed with a hammer attempted to break into a home on the 2100 block of Emerson St. A 78-year-old woman was home at the time and refused to open the door, prompting the man to shatter a window with a hammer.
While surveying the area of the crime, Luce-Caterino and Murphy spotted a man fitting a description supplied by the victim. He was on foot a few blocks from the scene. The officers found a hammer and gloves on the ground nearby and arrested the suspect.
Detectives later identified the same man as the culprit in the home invasion and assault of an 86-year-old woman on the 8100 block of Algon Ave. earlier that day.
The August Officer of the Month honors were awarded to Officers Terrance Black and Edward Ledford, who identified and arrested a suspected serial burglar.
While working in an unmarked vehicle on Aug. 17 at about 8 a.m., the officers spotted a man standing on a street corner at 6400 Bustleton Ave. who matched the description of a suspect wanted in connection with a burglary and auto theft earlier that morning.
The officers watched the suspect enter a SEPTA bus, so they followed the bus to the Frankford Transportation Center, where they questioned the man.
After obtaining his legitimate identity, the officers ran a computer check on him and learned he was wanted for parole violations and for a burglary in Bensalem Township. So they arrested him.
Detectives later determined that the suspect was carrying a wallet containing the driver’s license of the owner of a stolen vehicle. The suspect also was carrying a bag that contained clothing, gloves, a roll of trash bags, several cartons of cigarettes and loose packs of cigarettes that had been stolen during a commercial burglary that morning.
The suspect was eventually charged with committing a series of burglaries in the Northeast and in Bucks County. ••
