By Daily Press staff
Santa Monica police officers nabbed a suspected robber minutes after he fled a Wilshire Boulevard bank Wednesday afternoon.
A US Bank employee called police at 4:08 p.m. to report that the recently opened branch, located at 400 Wilshire Blvd., was being robbed, according to police.
Santa Monica Police officers arrived at the scene in less than two minutes. Witnesses then pointed out the suspect, who was walking away from a parked car in the 1200 block of Court Four, an alley between Fourth and Fifth streets, police said.
Officers detained the man and witnesses later positively identified him as the bank robbery suspect, police said.
After the man was arrested, police searched his 1998 white, two-door Mitsubishi Eclipse and found a replica handgun in a jacket that witnesses told police had allegedly been used during the bank robbery.
Officers also recovered a sack of money from the vehicle. An exact amount wasn’t immediately available.
While the identity of the suspect is being withheld pending fingerprint verification, police described the suspect as a black male in his 40s.
Before police could positively identify the suspect and book him into the Santa Monica Jail, however, the man complained of unknown “medical problems.” Paramedics were called and he was treated at the jail, then transported to a local hospital where at press time he was receiving medical attention, said Lt. Frank Fabrega, an SMPD spokesman.
Police plan to book the man in Santa Monica, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation likely will be involved as well, Fabrega said.
“We’ll handle the booking,” he said. “If the FBI comes in, they will file a complaint and handle the prosecution of the matter. But it will be a joint investigation by the Santa Monica Police Department and the FBI.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 20, 2003. Read the original PDF.