Suspected North Texas Bank Robber Arrested In Dallas Following Finger Print Match
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A Dallas man has been arrested and charged with bank robbery, Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah announced Thursday, May 4.
Michael Wilmer Wilson, 34, was arrested by the FBI at his home in Dallas on Thursday morning and charged with bank robbery.
He is set to make his first appearance in federal court on Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, Wilson is allegedly connected to multiple recent bank robberies across North Texas.
The incidents were repeatedly caught on surveillance cameras.
During a robbery at a bank in Dallas on Feb. 9, Wilson allegedly flashed a demand note that read, "This is a robbery. I have a gun." After grabbing several thousand dollars from the frightened teller, he fled with the money and demand note – but left a deposit slip on the counter.
Investigators lifted a latent fingerprint off of the slip. They ran the print through a police department database, but failed to turn up a match.
During another robbery at a bank in Ennis on April 29, the suspect allegedly displayed a handwritten demand note that read, "THIS IS A ROBBERY. 30K. DON'T BE A HERO." He instructed the victim teller to place cash into a folder, then fled, on foot, towards a nearby grocery store.
Investigators collected surveillance video from the grocery store, which showed a silver Dodge Challenger pulling out of the parking lot approximately three minutes after the robbery.
The footage later showed the vehicle crossing paths with a police department vehicle, which happened to record the car's license plate on its dash cam.
A search of the license plate number in the Texas Department of Public Safety database revealed that the silver Dodge was registered to Wilson, whose driver's license photo matched witnesses' descriptions of the bank robbery suspect.
The original news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said it was from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles' database. They shared a correction with CBSDFW.com Thursday night.
A forensic fingerprint examiner compared the latent print collected during the Feb. 9 robbery to prints collected by the DPS in March 2020 when Wilson applied for his license, and determined the prints were a match.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.