14-year-old charged in 15 robberies near Drexel's campus

Philadelphia Police have arrested and charged a 14-year-old in connection with 15 robberies that occurred in West Philadelphia near Drexel University's campus. He has been charged with 15 counts of robbery and related offenses.

The armed robberies took place in August and September of 2015, with the most recent occurring on September 30.

That robbery occurred on the 400 block of N. Preston Street at approximately 6:45 a.m.

A female victim was walking south on N. Preston Street when the suspect approached her. He then pulled out a black-colored handgun and told the victim, "Don't scream."

The victim yelled and then the suspect reached for her purse, then pushed her onto a parked vehicle. She fell to the ground.

The strap of the purse then broke, and the suspect fled with it around the corner onto the 4000 block of Spring Garden Street. He then got onto a bicycle.

The victim followed and attempted to push the suspect off the bike to get her purse back. However, the suspect got off the bike, pushed the victim to the ground and punched her twice in the face.

The suspect then fled on the bike east on the 4000 block of Spring Garden Street.

That same day, detectives interviewed the victim.

Investigators then instructed her to log into her Discover Credit Card account to try to cancel the card, but while logging in she received an email stating that a suspicious transaction had occurred at an establishment on the 700 block of N. 38 th Street at 7:24 a.m.

An investigator went to the establishment and retrieved video of the suspect using the victim's credit card at the ATM machine located inside the store.

On October 2, officers observed the suspect at 37 th Street and Fairmount Avenue on a purple bicycle.

The officers noticed that the male looked like the suspect in the video and was riding a purple bike that had been described in some of the robberies.

The suspect was stopped for investigation and taken to Southwest Detective Division.

Officials received consent to search the suspect's residence and found clothing worn in one of the robberies as well as the bicycles used in the previous robberies.