Convicted bank robber charged in killings of two guards at ATM

~ Mustafa Ali previously served seven years in federal prison for bank robbery.

PHILADELPHIA -- A convicted bank robber charged with killing two armored car guards had spotted the vehicle on the road and followed it to an ATM, where he shot them as they serviced the cash machine, a homicide detective said Saturday.

Mustafa Ali, 36, of Philadelphia, executed the two retired Philadelphia police officers without saying a word, police have said.

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

Ali owned the dark Acura used in the heist, although the FBI had not been able to glean the license plate number from the surveillance film, the detective said. Ali instead became a suspect based on tips called in 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 for stepping up in this case.

"Within an hour, we started getting information from citizens," Johnson said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. "[Ali] will never walk the streets, hopefully, again in his lifetime."

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

Ali was scheduled to be arraigned over the weekend and will likely be ineligible for bail. He was arrested on an unrelated charge Friday afternoon and was later charged with two counts of murder, robbery, a firearms charge and other charges after giving a statement.

Ali did not have an attorney when he gave his statement, the detective said, and it was not immediately clear whether one had been appointed Saturday.

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

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

Authorities spent Friday fielding tips about the suspect and his getaway car, a new Acura TL Type-S. Police towed a car matching that description from the apartment complex where they found Ali on Friday afternoon. Police believe he was preparing to leave the area.

The robber approached the armored car from behind Thursday morning outside a bank in northeast Philadelphia. He shot one guard in the chest, then went around the vehicle and shot the second guard as he tried to unholster his gun, police have said. He shot toward a third guard inside the armored car, picked up a bag of deposits and fled.

Investigators believe he may have grabbed deposits -- likely a mix of checks and cash -- but the detective said Saturday that authorities don't believe he got away with much.

The victims, Alullo, 54, and William Widmaier, 65, were friends from their days working together on the police force. Widmaier was shot once in the chest, and Alullo was shot three times in the chest and abdomen.

Neither victim was wearing a bulletproof vest. Loomis, the armored-car company, does not require guards to wear the vests, but officials said they are considering revising their policy.

The third guard was grazed by shattered glass as the robber shot at the window. That guard was treated at a hospital for lacerations and released.