Woman Arrested In Sonoma Bank Robbery, Attempted Getaway On Local Bus
SONOMA (CBS SF) -- A woman was arrested Wednesday following a bank robbery in Sonoma where police say the suspect tried to make her escape on a county transit bus.
Sonoma police said officers and Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies responded to a robbery alarm at a Union Bank branch on the 500 block of Broadway at 1:09 p.m.
The suspect was described as a black female adult, wearing a blue Golden State Warriors shirt and black pants. She walked into the bank, contacted a bank teller and stated, "I'm robbing the bank," according to police.
The teller put an unknown amount of money in a bag and gave it to the women, who immediately walked out of the bank. There was no weapon displayed or seen, police said.
A witness saw the woman get onto a Sonoma County Transit bus heading south on Broadway. A sheriff's deputy followed the bus until it came to a stop in the area of Watmaugh Road at Stage Gulch, and deputies boarded the bus and detained a woman who was carrying a bank bag containing the money, police said.
Witnesses were taken to the scene and positively identified the person detained as the woman who robbed the bank. The suspect was identified as Porschia Jhonette Napalan, approximately 43 years of age, a San Francisco resident.
Napalan was arrested and was expected to booked at the Sonoma County on robbery charges. Investigators were in the process of gathering video evidence and additional witness statements.