Police Arrest Robbery Suspect

Officers arrested a suspect early yesterday morning in connection with a series of armed robberies in the Harvard and MIT areas, relying on the joint efforts of seven police departments and the U.S. Secret Service, according to an alert from the Cambridge Police Department.

The suspect—Santony Joseph, 23, of Malden—was charged with armed robbery, armed robbery with a knife, and receiving stolen property, with other potential charges pending. Joseph’s accomplice, however, was still at large at the time of the arrest, according to the alert.

During the investigation, police were able to locate the suspect in Medford, where detectives from the Brookline and the Cambridge Police Departments saw him operating a vehicle that fit the description from the recent robberies.

Police arrested the suspect after “observing evidence inside the vehicle,” according to the alert.

“Cambridge Police are very happy to have apprehended a suspect with the help of the information sharing and cooperation that took place between the various law enforcement agencies,” wrote Cambridge Police spokesman Daniel M. Riviello in an e-mail.

Riviello added that the U.S. Secret Service became involved to provide technical support for the investigation.

Joseph is possibly connected to the string of eight robberies that have taken place in the past two weeks, the most recent two of which occurred Tuesday night, according to the alert.

The first robbery on Tuesday took place at 9:48 p.m., when two black males robbed a Somerville resident of his laptop, cell phone, and wallet on Shepard Street near Walker Street, right outside of the Quad, according to CPD.

The two black males chased after the victim, and there was no one else on the street, according to Harvard shuttle operator Melvin Washington, Jr, who witnessed part of the robbery while driving the shuttle.

According to Washington, the two suspects slowed down after seeing the shuttle.

“I knew they were going to attack him,” Washington said. Although he did not stop at the crime scene, Washington said he called the police immediately afterward.

About an hour later, MIT suffered a possibly related robbery in which an Albany Street resident was held at knifepoint by two black males while walking to his home, according to CPD.

“I am unaware if these victims [on Tuesday] were affiliated with Harvard or MIT in any way,” Riviello wrote.

At least two Harvard affiliates and four MIT affiliates were involved with potentially connected earlier robberies. The victims of these incidents described the robbers as African-American males, one “very heavy set and the other...tall and thin,” according to a Cambridge Police advisory issued on Tuesday in response to two other robberies, which took place on Monday night.

CPD also convened a meeting yesterday, in which representatives from Somerville, Brookline, Harvard, MIT, and Boston University tried to “formulate a strategy to address these incidents,” according to the alert.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.