Police use suspect's clothing to link accused carjacker to armed robbery of restaurant

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia man is facing federal charges for a gunpoint carjacking after authorities determined he wore the same clothes during an armed robbery of a restaurant.

Amir Harvey, 22, was allegedly captured on home surveillance video ambushing the mother and 14-year-old daughter in the driveway of their Northeast Philadelphia home on Sept. 19. 

Court documents say that Harvey, dressed in dark clothes with a hat, blue gloves and face mask, pointed a handgun with a drum-style magazine at the teen as she neared the passengers side door.

The frightened teen dropped her backpack and ran to a neighbor's house for safety, at which point police say Harvey pointed the gun at the mother who dropped her purse and car keys. 

It's alleged that Harvey took the purse, backpack and car keys, and took off in the family's 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe. 

After contacting police, the woman told investigators that she was tracking her stolen car with an application on her cell phone. The car was later found abandoned on nearby Griffith Street. 

Police retrieved video from an apartment building near where the car was found that allegedly shows Harvey carrying the three bags taken in the carjacking 10 minute earlier. 

After reviewing a security camera in the basement of the apartment on the 7900 block of Castor Avenue, investigators linked Harvey to an apartment unit through an open-source check. 

Investigators pursued his employment history, which lead them to the Hook and Reel restaurant where they interviewed the restaurant manager who said Harvey was fired in April. 

Police were given access to the restaurant's surveillance cameras that captured a recent robbery on Sept. 9 by a group of armed men who forced their way in after closing time. 

One of the suspects on the video armed with a handgun with a drum-style magazine was wearing similar clothes to the man wanted for the armed carjacking in Southwest Philadelphia.

Police noted the suspect's black hooded sweatshirt with a light-colored emblem, black pants with a distinctive white insignia on the left thigh, white sneakers and blue latex gloves.

Investigators included Harvey's picture in an array of six images that were shown to the carjacking victim, leading the mother to tell police "this is the person who robbed me and my daughter." 

Federal prosecutors have charged Harvey with carjacking and carrying a firearm curing and in relation to a crime of violence.