Barbara BoyerInquirer Staff Writers PHILADELPHIA -- Police late last night captured the third suspect in the slaying of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, beating a self-imposed deadline to nab Eric DeShawn Floyd, 33, before the policeman's funeral tomorrow.
The takedown of Floyd came at 11:10 p.m. in Southwest Philadelphia.
The suspect, who had been on the run since Liczbinski's murder on Saturday, was sleeping upstairs in a front bedroom at 5432 Windsor Ave., a boarded-up middle-of-the-block rowhouse, when police got him, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said early this morning.
Floyd was with with a girlfriend, whose name was not released. He was unarmed. And he offered no resistance, Ramsey said.
"He's arrested. It's a done deal. It's over. He's on his way in," Homicide Detective Jack Cummings said late last night.
"We got him," echoed Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross. "Are we 100 percent sure we got him? We got him, and we're happy for that."
For the next hour, Floyd was held in Southwest Philadelphia, waiting for Homicide detectives to bring Liczbinski's handcuffs for him to be restrained for the ride to Police Headquarters. A police tradition is to use a slain policeman's handcuffs on his suspected killer.
Floyd arrived at Police Headquarters at 12:20 a.m. inside a van from the 24th Police District, the dead officer's station.
Mayor Nutter and his security detail arrived at the same time.
The van then backed into a loading bay, and Floyd and his girlfriend were whisked into an elevator, away from the view of the public and the many reporters who had gathered there. The entire episode was was a somber, businesslike affair, without any reaction from the officers there.
"The one emotion that everybody shared was relief," Ramsey later said.
Afterward, the mayor told reporters said he got within two feet of Floyd.
"I looked him dead in the eye when he came in, and I told him how disappointed I was in him," Nutter said. There was no response from the suspect, the mayor added.
Liczbinski's family, reached late last night by phone, said they were relieved. They were preparing for tonight's viewing in the Far Northeast and tomorrow's funeral.
Earlier, authorities pursuing a flood of tips, raided apartments in Logan and West Philadelphia and stopped at least one lookalike in their relentless hunt for Floyd.
A platoon of black-uniformed tactical officers searching for Floyd came up empty after raids on one apartment at 13th Street and Lindley Avenue in Logan and another on Vine Street in West Philadelphia, police said. They also stopped a passenger on a SEPTA K bus on Adams Avenue in the Lower Northeast after receiving tips prompted by a $150,000 reward for Floyd's arrest and conviction.
Police said that none of the tips appeared to be solid, but that they were committed to pursuing all of them.
"We are going to follow every lead, and the earth simply isn't large enough for this individual to hide forever," Ramsey said earlier.
Last night, police played a surveillance video of three robbers arriving at and leaving the ShopRite supermarket at 3745 Aramingo Avenue, where they held up a bank branch inside Saturday morning minutes before the deadly confrontation with Liczbinski.
The FBI had added Floyd to its list of wanted fugitives and posted a photograph on its Web site showing how he might appear if his beard had been shaved.
Investigators remained confident they would nab Floyd even if the search continued beyond Liczbinski's funeral, scheduled for tomorrow.
"I've got all the time in the world," said Sgt. Robert Wilkins, a homicide detective.
"He's done a good job running so far, but you can only run so far," Wilkins said. "And then you run out."
Police believe Floyd drove the blue Jeep Liberty used in the robbery.
The surveillance video, played for reporters at the Police Administration Building, tracked the Jeep as it first circled the crowded parking lot, then parked with its warning lights blinking in a fire zone in front of the entrance to the ShopRite.
Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn identified Floyd and Howard Cain, who was shot and killed by police later that day, as the two men dressed in women's Muslim garb who got out of the front seats. Only the upper portion of their faces and eyes were exposed.
The video shows one of them reaching back into the Jeep for a large box that he places in a shopping cart and wheels into the supermarket. Police believe the box contained the high-powered SKS assault rifle used to kill Liczbinski.
The third robber, wearing a dreadlock wig and sunglasses and identified by police as Levon T. Warner, is seen getting out of the Jeep's backseat.
Video from inside the supermarket tracked the three men entering the bank branch and picked them up again as they left.
Repeatedly during the 16-minute video, Blackburn pointed out how the robber identified as Floyd appeared to be positioning himself with the assault rifle to provide cover and protection.
"You can see how he was positioning that gun," Blackburn said as the video rolled. "He was ready."
At 11:27 a.m., the surveillance camera inside the supermarket picks up the three robbers as they walk out of the bank branch.
The one identified as Floyd is the first to exit. As his two accomplices walk toward the exit, the robber, with his right hand inside the large box, spins the cart in a semicircle as if he is scanning the area. He then turns and pushes the cart through the door.
The surveillance camera in the parking lot then shows the three robbers walking slowly toward the Jeep. The one identified as Floyd puts the box in the backseat and gets behind the wheel. And the Jeep pulls away.
Minutes later, Liczbinski, responding to the reported robbery, stops the Jeep at Almond and Schiller Streets about four blocks from the supermarket and is gunned down.
Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.