Wayne State police arrest 2 in campus robberies

Wayne State University police have arrested two men in connection to three campus robberies this week, university police said in a statement Thursday.

At 2:41 a.m. Wednesday, a 25-year-old male, not affiliated with WSU, reported he was robbed of his wallet and phone while walking on Cass Avenue, north of Burroughs.

 He told police he was walking home from work whentwo males with a handgun knocked him down. They went through his pockets, then fled east on Burroughs to a waiting red car, which drove off north on Woodward Avenue, police said in the statement. 

The incident followed another robbery just after midnight Wednesday, when WSU police officers responded to an incident on Cass Avenue, north of Putnam. A 20-year-old male WSU student reported he was walking on the sidewalk when he was forced to the ground by two males. They took his cell phone and fled on foot. 

While taking a report from the victim, another robbery was reported on Second and West Hancock, near Old Main. Officers said minutes after that earlier robbery, two males robbed a 27-year-old female student of car keys and fled in her blue Nissan. Police said the car was followed by accomplices in a red Ford Escape with a broken headlight. 

Two officers pursued the Ford Escape for several miles until they determined the speed was too dangerous and posed a danger to others. Another officer responding to the scene spotted the blue Nissan heading eastbound on Warren at a high rate of speed. The officer pursued it. Near 24th and Porter, the driver and passenger bailed out of the moving vehicle and were pursued on foot by WSU police. 

The driver was arrested on the porch of a house in the 1200 block of 25th street. A police K-9 Unit and handler recovered a handgun, a "facsimile" firearm, cell phones and a grey hooded sweatshirt from the foot chase route. 

Officers from the Detroit Police Department, responding to WSUPD's chase, arrested the other offender, the passenger who had bailed out of the fleeing Nissan at Porter and West Grand Boulevard. DPD officers recovered two stolen cellphones and a ski mask from that offender.

"Investigator's are 100% confident that the two offenders, arrested after the vehicle and foot pursuit early this morning, are the same offenders from the early morning robbery incidents at Cass and Putnam, the robbery at Second and W. Hancock and the robbery incident at Cass and Burroughs ... as both subjects still wore pieces of the same clothing from yesterday's robbery incident - which was caught entirely on video cameras located at the WSU iBio building at Cass and Burroughs," Wayne State police said.

srahal@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @SarahRahal_