Six officers will be recognized for the work they did during May, June and July.
The 2nd Police District Advisory Council will recognize six new Officers of the Month for May, June and July when the PDAC reconvenes on Sept. 12.
Joseph Mason and Patrick Saba have been selected for the May award for capturing a robbery suspect on May 29. At about 8:45 a.m., the officers responded to a police radio report of a robbery in progress in the area of 7200 Castor Ave. While en route, the partners saw a man fitting a flash description of the robber, who was walking on the 7200 block of Souder Street.
When they stopped the suspect, he was carrying an iPhone. A passing witness said he had seen the suspect steal the phone from another man a short time earlier, but the unidentified victim had fled.
Undaunted, the officers detained the suspect as they obtained the number of the phone and contacted the phone service provider to identify the owner. Although they were unable to find an address for the owner through DMV and voter records, they found a social media profile in the owner’s name and used it to contact him at his place of work.
When contacted, the victim reported he had been robbed and agreed to go to Souder Street to identify the suspect as the culprit. The victim’s statements allowed the officers to arrest the suspect for robbery.
Officers Kirk Dodd and Robert Donnelly have been chosen as Officers of the Month for June as they arrested a suspected convenience store robber.
Dodd and Donnelly were on patrol on the 1500 block of Tyson Avenue at about 2:16 a.m. on June 30 when they spotted a man wanted for robbing the Wawa at 8144 Castor Ave. three days earlier. The officers recognized the suspect from surveillance images of the crime.
When the officers approached the suspect, he allegedly tossed a black handgun to the ground. Police arrested him without further incident and recovered the gun.
Moments later, police radio broadcast a new gunpoint robbery report involving the Wawa at 6935 Castor Ave. The description of the culprit in that case also matched the suspect Dodd and Donnelly had taken into custody. He was charged with both hold-ups.
In July, Officers Patrick Dooley and William Postowski located and arrested two men who allegedly broke into another officer’s private vehicle and stole police equipment. As a result, Dooley and Postowski have been selected as Officers of the Month for July.
The theft-from-auto arrest occurred on July 20, 13 days after the crime. In addition, the partners tallied six major crime arrests, six “part two” crime arrests, one narcotics arrest, 54 car-stop investigations, 33 pedestrian investigations, 62 parking violations, 109 moving violations, nine auto “live stops,” two code violations and 61 radio call responses during the month. ••
