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Guard Slayings Suspect Held

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By MARYCLAIRE DALE, The Associated Press

Published: October 7, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - A convicted bank robber charged with killing two armored car guards spotted the vehicle on the road, followed it to an ATM and shot the guards as they serviced the machine, a homicide detective said Saturday.
Mustafa Ali, 36, of Philadelphia, executed the two retired Philadelphia police officers, police have said.

'He follows the truck, he sees an opportunity and he takes it,' said the detective, who requested anonymity because he is not a supervisor and is not authorized to comment publicly.

Ali became a suspect based on tips from the public.

Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, whose department has struggled to solve murder cases amid a 'stop snitching' culture among criminals and witnesses, thanked the public. 'Within an hour, we started getting information from citizens,' he said at a news conference Saturday. 'Ali will never walk the streets, hopefully, again in his lifetime.'

Ali previously served seven years in federal prison for bank robbery. He appears to have acted alone, police said.

He was to be arraigned over the weekend. He was arrested on an unrelated charge Friday and later charged with two counts of murder, robbery and other charges after giving a statement.

'If he is the suspect that killed my husband, he hurt his own family, too,' Donna Alullo, widow of slain guard Joseph Alullo, said. 'We hope that it is the suspect ... so that he is off the street and doesn't do it to anyone else.'

Police found the 9mm semiautomatic gun near a Philadelphia community college after Ali told them where he tossed it, the detective said.

Authorities spent Friday fielding tips about the suspect and his car, a new Acura TL Type-S. Police towed a car matching the description from an apartment complex where they found Ali on Friday afternoon.

On Thursday morning, Ali shot Alullo, 54, in the chest, and went around the vehicle and shot William Widmaier, 65, as he tried to unholster his gun, police said. He shot at a third guard inside the armored car, picked up a bag of deposits and fled.

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