Elgin Bank Robbery Suspect Arrested Following Tense Manhunt
UPDATED 01/19/12 6:10 a.m.
ELGIN, Ill. (CBS) -- Some Elgin residents were on lockdown Wednesday night as police searched for a bank robber.
The robber is now in custody, along with two other suspects who were arrested earlier.
As WBBM Newsradio's Nancy Harty reports, police used helicopters and search dogs to look for an armed man they believe is responsible for robbing the Elgin State Bank, 590 N. McLean Blvd., around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.
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Residents were told to lock their doors and stay inside.
Reports indicated that at some point after the bank was robbed, police began chasing a car with three occupants to the residential area near Royal Boulevard and Ruth Drive, where two got out and fled on foot; the third occupant was arrested. One of the two who fled on foot reportedly was captured soon afterward about four blocks away in the 700 block of Scott Drive.
The third suspect was arrested early Thursday morning, after an investigation led police to Batavia.
When the bank was robbed, Elgin police were already investigating a reported robbery about 4:40 p.m. at the pharmacy of the Super Walmart at Bowes and Randall roads. Information on that incident was not immediately available.
A third robbery was reported at 5 p.m., at the Check Into Cash at 551 Dundee Ave. in East Dundee. According to Police Chief Terry Mee, a man wearing dark-colored clothing and brandishing a black handgun walked into the store and demanded cash from the two female employees working at that time.
"He took cash from the cash drawers and demanded more money," Mee said, and the suspect eventually made the two employees wait in a bathroom while he continued to ransack the store, searching for more cash. It is believed he was in the store for five to eight minutes total, Mee said.
The man left while the two women were in the bathroom, and they could not tell police what he was driving or which direction he fled. Police are looking at surveillance tape from the store in attempts to identify the offender, Mee said.
Police canvassed the area looking for suspects and witnesses to the robbery. East Dundee's last robbery was in May, and that offender was caught immediately, Mee added.
Wednesday's Elgin State Bank robbery was not at the same site as another Elgin State Bank holdup that occurred Dec. 21; that one took place at the Randall and Bowes roads location. Also, a suspect was arrested in that incident.
The Elgin Courier-News contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
