Federal agents have arrested two more men sought in connection with the kidnapping and torture of a woman who worked along Philadelphia's Jewelers' Row.
Basil Buie, 26, and 35-year-old Salahudin Shaheed were taken into custody Thursday night after an extensive investigation that has lasted for months.
It was the afternoon of April 4 when the men, along with 31-year-old Khayree Gay, grabbed the 54-year-old jewelry store clerk inside a parking garage at 8th and Chestnut Streets, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said.
The woman was thrown into a van, a hood placed over her head and her hands zip-tied, investigators said. The trio took $800 in cash and her ring and demanded the woman's debit card pin number and codes to the alarm and safe at National Watch & Diamond Exchange along S. 8th Street, according to investigators.
But the victim didn't know the alarm and safe information, and when she couldn't supply the information, the suspects turned even more violent, agents said.
For the next few hours, they drove the victim around as she was beaten and repeatedly stunned with a Taser, officials said. They told her, agents said, "This is the day you're going to die."
She was eventually thrown from the van at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Darby, Pennsylvania. A concussion and broken ribs were the physical scars she suffered as well as mental distress. She is now home, though, agents said.
U.S. & World
"The victim suffered, but survived a brutal, horrific assault," ATF Special Agent in Charge Anthony Tropea said.
"These arrests will hopefully bring some measure of relief to the victim, to the business that these 3 men allegedly targeted, to the business community in Jewelers Row in Center City, and to the public at large," he said.
Gay was arrested in South Carolina days after the assault. He pleaded not guilty to the crime.
Buie and Shaheed are due in court Friday. Attorney information was not immediately available for the men.
