KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A suspect was arrested shortly after a Kalamazoo bank was robbed Friday afternoon.
The man taken into custody was just paroled from prison last month after serving a seven-year term for bank robbery.
At 2 p.m. Friday, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety responded to a robbery at the Keystone Community Bank at 2925 Oakland Drive in Kalamazoo. A lone man entered the bank, passed a note to a teller demanding money, fled the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash and was seen getting into a pickup truck driven by a white male who was waiting in the vehicle.
No weapon was indicated or seen.
The robber was described as a black man wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and a cream colored hat, approximately 35 to 40 years old, standing 6-feet-1 and weighing 250 pounds.
A witness provided the vehicle’s license plate number; detailed descriptions of both men and the truck; and the direction of travel. Officers quickly located the vehicle at Westnedge and Kilgore and stopped it. The driver was the only person inside and said that he had just dropped off the passenger at an apartment building on Duke Street.
Since police did not know where the suspect was and with dismissal approaching at nearby St. Monica Catholic School, Kalamazoo Public Safety had the school go on lockdown until the suspect was located.
Public Safety officers responded to the area of Duke Street, saw a person matching the description and he was taken into custody.
The suspect had been arrested in 2006 for bank robbery and was just released on federal parole in April. The man will be arraigned on bank robbery charges Monday.
Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety by calling (269) 337-8994 or Silent Observer by calling (269) 343-2100 or at www.kalamazoosilentobserver.com on the Web.
