They are identified as 25-year-old Dawand Williams and 18-year-old Nahfeeh Williams, cousins from the 2000 block of Mifflin Street in South Philadelphia.
Investigators say the two were caught on surveillance video, and a tip call led to the arrests.
It all began around 11:15 p.m. Thursday at the 69th Street Terminal. Police say the two approached a 53-year-old driver for County Cab, asking to be taken to 82nd Street and Lindbergh Avenue, and then to a housing project a couple of blocks up the road at 82nd and Lyons.
Lieutenant John Walker of the Philadelphia Police Department explains, "There's two males in the backseat. The one with the brown Rocawear sweater takes his belt off, wraps it around the driver's neck."
The second male then rifles through the driver's pockets and takes $100. But, police say, they wanted more.
"The cab driver is then asked for the PIN numbers for his credit cards and MAC cards, at which time he refuses. So they continued to beat him over the head with an unknown object," Walker said.
The suspects then locked the cabbie in the trunk and drove around for approximately 20 minutes. They then ordered him to count to 100 before getting out of the trunk.
The driver was hospitalized at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with over 100 staples in his head. He was in and out of surgery all weekend and remains in critical but stable condition.
A 30-year friend said he has been able to talk to him at the hospital.
"They beat him up and threw him in the trunk. I don't really know that much. He seems all right, he doesn't seem bothered too much. He wants to get back to work," said James Jackson.
Tuesday night, after that tip call came in, police raided the Upper Darby apartment where both Williams cousins were staying. Investigators say they hauled out a jackpot of evidence, including some of the clothing the suspects are seen wearing on the surveillance video.
Police are hailing SEPTA's state-of-the-art, system-wide surveillance system.
"Looking inside the terminal, they're armed at pretty much every point, so we were able to get some very good video from SEPTA. Without this technology, we'd probably be nowhere in this particular case," Walker said.
