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Reports: Man killed by FBI agents in Philly was wanted in 7-Eleven heists

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On the day Upper Southampton police issued a warrant for his arrest in a July 30 Street Road 7-Eleven robbery, Tahiem Cook, 23, of Philadelphia, died of gunshot wounds sustained in an FBI-agent-involved shooting in the city.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office isn’t commenting on the Aug. 3 shooting and the FBI didn’t name Cook in its statement on the incident.

But multiple media reports did and court documents confirmed that Cook was the target of an FBI probe of the 7-Eleven robberies and that agents had Cook’s West Venango Street apartment under surveillance on the previous day.

“The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents or task force members seriously,” read the FBI statement. “In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division.”

Police said Cook was one of two people who held up the Upper Southampton 7-Eleven store and that the same pair robbed a 7-Eleven in Montgomery Township less than an hour earlier.

The Upper Southampton incident, which was caught on surveillance video, included the theft of the clerk’s cell phone, police said. Later that day, officers recovered several items of discarded clothing along Knowles Avenue and Jaymor Road that matched what was worn during the heist. Evidence pointed to the clothing as being dumped from a black sedan. Police said a resident living along the same route found the clerk’s cell phone.

Separately, the FBI was looking into the two robberies plus several others with similar characteristics. The FBI obtained cell phone records that showed there were only two T-Mobile devices that were present at or near both 7-Elevens when the robberies occurred, and that both took the same route at the same time from one store to the other, then traveled together to West Venango Street.

Checks of license plate reader cameras along that route turned up a black Ford Fusion, which the FBI later spotted on West Venango Street.

Further investigation reportedly linked Cook to one of the phones and to the Ford Fusion. A warrant for his arrest was issued on felony charges of robbery and making terroristic threats, as well as some misdemeanor theft and assault charges.


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