Officers interrupt robbery attempt at Olney Dunkin' Donuts

OLNEY (WPVI) -- A pair of veteran Philadelphia police officers were in the right place at the right time and stopped an attempted robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts in Olney.

On Wednesday afternoon, Officers Anthony Sherman and Paul Austin took us back to Monday morning.

The 35th district undercover officers were assigned to check in on local businesses in Olney.

They had just walked out of the Dunkin' Donuts in the 6200 block of North Front Street.

They were sitting in their unmarked vehicle and saw a man walk up, pull down a Halloween mask, and walk inside.

"Pulls the mask down - 10 feet away from us and goes in," said Officer Austin.

The rest was captured by surveillance cameras as the officers moved in. Officer Sherman walked up behind the unsuspecting suspect who was now holding a gun.

"I went up, snuck up behind him, put the gun to him and told him, 'Please get down on the ground.' He complied," said Officer Sherman.

"I covered him from the door. He took control. The defendant complied, went right down so we had that under control there, disarmed him, cuffed him up," said Officer Austin.

Police say the suspect 20-year-old Russell Mason-Watts is the same man caught on surveillance robbing a Family Dollar store in the same shopping complex a week earlier.

"They get in real quick - real fast so no one gets hurt. That's a good thing. He's behind bars - it's where he should be," said Jessica Rose, Dunkin' Donuts employee.

In 2007, another 35th district officer, Chuck Cassidy, was shot and killed when he went to check on a Dunkin' Donuts and walked in on a robbery in progress.

Officers Sherman and Austin are getting great accolades from police brass for making the arrest while keeping everyone - even the suspect safe.

"They used good tactics. I mean it could have turned bad on them, but they used their heads, they were calm, took him down, did what they had to do - very proud of them," said Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Officer Sherman will have 25 years on the job in April. Officer Austin has been a Philadelphia police officer for 37 years.

Neither has ever interrupted a crime in progress like this.

As for the suspect, Mason-Watts faces multiple counts of robbery.