Starr
Police, U.S. marshals and Secret Service agents went to a Rhawnhurst apartment building on Dec. 5 seeking to arrest a man for passing tens of thousands of dollars in bad checks. When they got there, the officers found their fugitive, who was allegedly sitting on a loaded gun and illegal drugs.
Raymond Starr, 21, was wanted on four separate arrest warrants in Philadelphia, Bucks County and Montgomery County involving charges of fraud, assaulting police, probation violation and failing to appear in court. Authorities found him inside an apartment on the 7400 block of Roosevelt Blvd.
Starr had been listed among the city’s most wanted fugitives, although police did not disclose how they located him. His most recent address of record was on the 7100 block of N. Uber St.
Authorities had been seeking Starr since late last year in connection with an ongoing fraudulent check scheme. Starr allegedly went to college campuses in the Philadelphia area and to South Street, where he approached unsuspecting young adults and persuaded them to use their bank accounts to cash forged checks that he supplied to them.
While on the run, Starr allegedly assaulted a Philadelphia sheriff and police officers in Upper Southampton in two separate incidents. He escaped both times.
When Philadelphia police and federal agents caught up with him on Dec. 5, he allegedly was inside an apartment bedroom. Under the bed, authorities allegedly found a 5.7-millimeter handgun loaded with 20 live rounds. They also found two additional ammunition magazines loaded with 19 rounds and five rounds, as well as a third empty magazine. Police and agents allegedly found illicit drugs, too, including 642 prescription pills, two bundles of suspected marijuana and a bag of suspected cocaine.
Authorities seized $1,848 cash from the apartment and arrested two other fugitives who were there at the time: Tylar Farmbry, 20, was wanted for a knifepoint robbery in Cheltenham and probation violation in Philadelphia, while Muhammad Sadaat Ali White, 21, was wanted on an unspecified warrant from Philadelphia.
Starr was charged with theft, passing bad checks, access device fraud, conspiracy, weapons violations and drug trafficking. ••
