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Two Men Charged With Assisting Philly Cop Killer

Amber Liczbinski, left, and her mother Michelle, right, are joined by funeral home director Gerald Givinsh, center, outside the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Friday May 9, 2008, in Philadelphia after the funeral for Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski

PHILADELPHIA – Police have charged a second person with helping Eric DeShawn Floyd elude a dragnet last week after the murder of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, and investigators say they’re not finished rounding up friends who helped the fugitive flee.

Isaac Albright, 33, picked up his friend in North Philadelphia last Sunday, the day after Liczbinski was gunned down responding to a bank robbery in Port Richmond, Homicide Sgt. Robert Wilkins said yesterday.

Wilkins said Albright took Floyd and Floyd’s girlfriend to a boarded-up house in Kingsessing, where the couple holed up until police were tipped off and raided the hideout late Wednesday.

The arrest of Floyd, 33, and Tonya Stephens, 37, both of North Philadelphia, ended a massive search to find the last suspect wanted in the heist and slaying.

Albright, whose last known address was in Eastwick, was arrested Friday, the day Liczbinski was buried. Albright was charged with obstruction of justice, hindering apprehension and conspiracy. He was held without bail.

Wilkins said the authorities had found Albright in Graterford Prison, where he was being held on a parole violation related to a 2000 conviction for auto theft. It was unclear when Albright had entered Graterford.

Stephens, the girlfriend, also is charged with helping Floyd elude police. The investigation was continuing, Wilkins said.

Police have said Floyd and Levon T. Warner, 39, of West Philadelphia, confessed that they had participated in the armed robbery of the Bank of America branch inside a ShopRite on Aramingo Avenue but had been surprised when the robbery’s mastermind, Howard Cain, 34, of North Philadelphia, shot Liczbinski with a high-powered, Chinese-made carbine.

Cain was shot dead by police when he turned the gun on two other officers. Warner was apprehended without incident blocks away. Floyd escaped on foot, police said.

In addition to Floyd and Warner, police charged Cain’s uncle with helping to carjack the Jeep that police say the robbers used as their getaway vehicle.

Mitchell Cain, 49, of the 200 block of North 61st Street, was charged with robbery, carjacking, firearms violations and related offenses.

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