NEWAGO COUNTY, Mich.-- He was known as the "respectful robber", now after being linked to a series of bank robberies, including 4 in Michigan that same man has been killed after murdering a state trooper in Wisconsin. As the investigation continues new details are coming out about the robber’s past.
Steven Snyder robbed a bank in Northern Wisconsin back in March then went on to kill a civilian, and a Wisconsin state trooper before he died, but his criminal record doesn`t end there.
People close to Steven Timothy Snyder would say he was a hard worker and a family man, and others would categorize him by trade: a master cement mason with his own business in suburban Detroit, but he had another identity to law enforcement.
“Early on the FBI had called him the respectful robber. Originally this person was saying “please” and “thank you” while he was sticking guns in peoples’ faces and robbing them,” said Sheriff Pat Hedlund from the Newaygo Sheriff’s Department.
On March 24th Steven Snyder made headlines for all the wrong reasons, and his “polite” reputation proved to be a sham.
“He was anything but a respectful robber, because he was everything but that. "He was a common criminal,” said Hedlund.
Authorities received a tip that the person robbing several banks in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, was Snyder, and as they continued their investigation to link him to the robberies he got more violent.
“His violence was escalating, he shot at a teller in Ohio,” said Hedlund.
Two weeks later, he robbed a bank in northern Wisconsin. After that he shot a citizen Thomas Christ, when having a dispute over parking his getaway car on his property. Hours later he was stopped by Wisconsin State Trooper Trevor Casper. Casper was only 21-years-old, and it was his first day in the field alone. Snyder got out of his car and started firing at the trooper immediately. Casper shot back after being hit. Both of the men fell victim to the gunshots.
It wasn’t long before authorities from Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan linked him to 9 other bank robberies spanning from 2011 to 2015, four of them in Michigan.
“He would pick a small town like Luther (MI) or Wellston (MI) that had limited protection and a bank that was out by itself, and same thing in Wisconsin and same thing in Ohio. He would pick some small town and that was what he targeted,” said Hedlund.
15 years prior to his earliest bank robbery, he was arrested in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin after a bloody brawl with pipes and baseball bats between a group of “skinheads” and a group of “Blacks and Hispanics."
The cops got a hold of 19-year-old Steven Snyder who had several white power tattoos and a coat filled with small printed cards promoting “national alliance," a white supremacist group.
Snyder served 50 days in the Fond Du Lac county jail after being convicted of disorderly conduct.
A violent beginning to a violent end for Steven Snyder in the Fond du Lac community, but the story may not end there.
“We are still following the money, where the money went,” said Hedlund.
Snyder’s record was relatively clean after that ’96 fight until the bank robberies, which he was linked to through DNA. Newaygo County Sheriff’s Department says they are still investigating if he is linked to other bank robberies.
