Police arrested the man who they believe was behind a spree of eight armed taxi robberies in Manhattan, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The suspect, Earl Bradley Evans, was arrested while leaving his home yesterday at 233 Vernon Ave. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section Brooklyn, only blocks from the subway station where he allegedly told his victims to drop him off, police sources said.

At Mr. Evans’s home, police found an imitation black handgun that resembled a 9mm pistol and a black duffle bag that matched the description of the cache used by the assailant to conceal the weapon in at least one of the robberies, Mr. Kelly said.

When Mr. Kelly was asked by reporters if the gun appeared to be authentic at a press conference yesterday, he said, “it would certainly scare me.”

Filled with fake bullets, the imitation pistol was described by the head of the police department’s central robbery squad, James Shea, as “the best one I’ve ever seen.”

Mr. Evans, who police said was likely from Tennessee, has not yet been charged in the robberies because investigators are waiting for more of the victims to identify him in a lineup, Mr. Kelly said.