Philadelphia police announced an arrest Wednesday in two of at least three recent home invasion robberies in the area of Temple University off-campus housing.
Police and prosecutors say Naris Johnson, 25, was one of the suspects responsible for a home invasion that occurred on Nov. 11 on the 1500 block of North 13th Street and another on Monday, Nov. 21, on the 1900 block of 18th Street.
Johnson was arrested around 7:40 p.m. Monday when police said they saw him getting into a stolen Lexis on Royal Street near his Germantown home. A debit card and two Apple watches taken in the home invasion earlier that day were recovered from the car, the Philadelphia District Attorney's office said.
A search warrant of Johnson's home uncovered further evidence, prosecutors added, including cellphones.
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Johnson faces more than a dozen charges in the two cases, including burglary, kidnapping, robbery, criminal trespass and a number of weapons offenses.
On Monday. police released surveillance video of two suspects sought in the North 13th Street home invasion, where 11 people, including several Temple University students, were at gunpoint during a robbery in their off-campus home.
The video shows the suspects running across a street while both wearing black hoodies and pants and what appear to be light-colored gloves. One wore white and black New Balance sneakers, while the other wore multicolored sneakers, and both wore black face covering, with one in a ski mask.
The victims told police the suspects – whom detectives said appeared to be in their 20s – had guns and forced them into a basement while they robbed them on Nov. 11.
The robbery happened around 6 a.m. The victims – a mix of men and women between 20 and 22 years old – were sleeping when the suspects broke into the home and robbed them, police said.
Some of the women – all seniors at Temple University – who were robbed said the men went room-to-room waking up some of them. They then made the women wake up the others. The men spent about an hour in the home, going through the women’s rooms. The men joked with each other and acted casually during the robbery, the victims said.
The women told NBC10 that the men were looking for drugs, but they didn't have any.
The robbers took credit and debit cards, cellphones and the keys to a 2015 silver Lincoln MKZ, police said, adding that the cards were used shortly after the robbery. The residents said the robbers also took cash and smashed a TV.
"You go to college, and it's supposed to be a fun time when you can have fun with your friends and finally be away from home and have independence," Nina, one of the student victims, said at the time. “Not only to have someone invade your home and your privacy, but to be woken up out of sleep ... that kind of taints things.”
The Nov. 11 home invasion preceded another home invasion at gunpoint involving Temple University students.
The latest case happened shortly before 6 a.m. Monday on the 1900 block of North 18th Street. The two male suspects stole a 2022 black Mitsubishi Cross, a Glock 19 handgun, several iPhones, iPad, Apple watches and a Mac Book Pro, according to police. One of the suspects wore a mask and was armed with an Uzi-style weapon; the other wore all-black clothing with Nike gloves, police said.
A victim told NBC10 he was woken up by someone tapping and pointing a gun at him. The two males made him get his other roommate, who was also asleep at the time, and stay in a bathroom while they stole their belongings.
The victim said the two seemed as though they'd done it before. He recalled the entire incident taking about 45 minutes.
Police said the suspects were last seen northbound on 18th Street in the stolen Mitsubishi. However, the victim said he was able to track the car and found it abandoned a few blocks away.
Detectives said the latest home invasion was "very, very similar" to two others. “They were obviously targeted in the same way as the others, so we’re obviously looking at this to be a pattern or connected to the other cases," PPD's Vanore said.
Anyone with additional information in these cases is asked to contact the PPD at 215-686-3047 or 215-686-3048. Anonymous tips can be submitted at 215-686- TIPS (8477).
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
