Bank Robberies

The ride from the Harford County jail in Bel Air to the nearest hospital took all of six minutes. That was enough time for Terrence Kasses Washington - a man accused of bank robbery and car theft who had escaped from jail twice before, and whose escapades were re-enacted on America's Most Wanted. By the time the sedan reached Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in the pre-dawn hours yesterday, Washington had slipped out of his leg irons, handcuffs and belly chain. When the two armed officers in the front seat opened the back door, Washington fled into the darkness, triggering a widespread search that continued last night.

The FBI is investigating a daytime armed robbery at a bank in Glen Burnie in which two suspects got away -- but without a dime to show for the effort.They dropped the cash while running out of the bank, said county police. It was returned to the bank.The robbery occurred Wednesday at the former NationsBank branch at Glen Burnie Mall in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway.Police said that two men, one carrying a silver handgun and the other a blue steel handgun, entered the bank at 9: 25 a.m.One gunman ordered customers to sit on the floor.

A suspect in a holdup at a Glen Burnie bank branch Monday was in custody yesterday, tracked down by FBI agents and the police through the license tag of the getaway car.Authorities said a gray Acura belonging to the man's wife was used in the robbery. He was arrested at their apartment on Falcon Place in Waldorf shortly before midnight Tuesday after an hours-long standoff and negotiations with police.The robber implied that he had a weapon when he handed a note to a teller at Farmers National Bank in the 200 block of Hospital Drive about 11 a.m., authorities said.

DOWNTOWN IS a lot safer than the suburbs, if you happen to be visiting a bank. Robberies of banks downtown fell nearly 70 percent, from 67 in 1996 to just 21 last year. Conversely, bank robberies in Baltimore County increased about 75 percent, from 74 in 1996 to 129 in 1997.Central District police Maj. Steven E. McMahon says downtown bank robberies decreased in part because arrests there are up, from 87 in 1996 to 98 last year.But he said another reason is better communication with police.

A man suspected in 27 bank robberies, including three in Baltimore County, was captured in West Virginia on Saturday, about an hour after he was featured on the television program "America's Most Wanted."Agents from FBI offices in Baltimore and Pittsburgh and West Virginia state police in Martinsburg teamed to capture John Dennis Grubb, 53, at his Jerrardstown trailer about 10 p.m. Saturday.A woman called "America's Most Wanted" hot line minutes after the show aired, saying she recognized Grubb, said Howard Hay, an associate producer for the show who accompanied authorities on the arrest.

Bank robberies in Baltimore and Baltimore County were down 72 percent in the first four months of this year, compared with the same period last year -- a drop that bank and law enforcement officials credit to new deterrence devices and increased visibility of guards.The number of bank robberies dropped from 83 in the first four months of 1997 to 23 this year in Baltimore and Baltimore County, where most of Maryland's bank robberies occurred, according to figures released yesterday by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

Saying that efforts of the Baltimore Police Department have led to a significant drop in bank robberies this year, NationsBank donated $5,000 yesterday to the agency to be used for rewards.The money was donated to the department's Metro Crime Stoppers program, which rewards citizens for information, in recognition of the work of Lt. Larry Leeson, head of the robbery unit."Baltimore City has done a tremendous job," said Michael J. Bacon, vice president of corporate security at NationsBank.

PIKESVILLE -- About 60 men and women will report to State Police Headquarters tomorrow to begin six months of training leading to their graduation in July as troopers.The 110th recruit class will receive training in physical conditioning, criminal and traffic laws, firearms, investigation and police procedure.State Police said enrollment of the recruit class will help to address the force's manpower needs.ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND -- The ninth commencement of the Maryland National Guard's Freestate Challenge, a 22-week resident program to help school dropouts obtain their GED certificates, was held yesterday at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The number of bank robberies last year plummeted almost 70 percent in the center of Baltimore -- where many banks are concentrated -- and city police are attributing the drop to improved communication between businesses and officers, increased security and news of high arrest rates.Bank robberies in the city as a whole also fell last year, but less dramatically -- 13 1/2 percent, from 133 in 1996 to 115. Such robberies were up in four police districts. The biggest increase was in the Northern District, from six bank robberies in 1996 to 32 last year.

A federal court has refused the appeal of Anthony and Michael Zenone, two Baltimore brothers convicted in a 1996 spree of violence that prosecutors say culminated with two mysterious murders and three bank robberies.The decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ends the criminal case against the men, who argued they were convicted based on evidence wrongfully seized in an FBI search of their Northeast Baltimore home. They also claimed that a federal judge erred in doling out stiffer sentences than were called for in sentencing guidelines.

Motorist fatally injured in Parkton-area I-83 crash The driver of a 1995 Ford truck was killed early Sunday morning after striking a bridge abutment on northbound Interstate 83 at Middletown Road. The driver died at the scene and the truck was badly burned, Maryland State Police said. The accident occurred at 4:30 a.m. Police said the victim's identity had not been determined. The highway reopened to traffic at 7:50 a.m. Jacques Kelly Baltimore man convicted of December 2000 rape A Baltimore jury convicted a 28-year-old Baltimore man last week of first-degree rape and other charges in a 2000 attack on a woman in the 400 block of Ellwood Ave. Prosecutor Jennifer McAllister alleged during a three-day trial that Lawrence Mosley of the 500 block of N. Robinson St. grabbed the victim at knifepoint on Dec. 16, 2000, robbed her, took her to Ellwood Park and forced her to perform a sexual act before raping her. Police identified Mosley as a suspect after a 2006 search of a national DNA database matched him with evidence collected at the crime scene.

Man believed responsible for eight bank robberies Baltimore County police are asking the public's help in identifying a suspect they think is responsible for eight bank robberies since June. The most recent robbery was at 11 a.m. Jan 17 at Provident Bank in a Shoppers food store in the 11100 block of Reisterstown Road. The man is a suspect in these robberies: June 14 and Nov. 15, Chevy Chase Bank in the 4600 block of Edmondson Ave.; June 21, Provident Bank in the 5400 block of Baltimore National Pike; Aug. 12, Provident Bank in the 3800 block of E. Lombard St.; Aug. 21, Provident Bank inside the Reisterstown Road Shoppers food store that was also robbed last week; Nov. 30, Provident Bank inside the Shoppers food store in the 800 block of Goucher Blvd.

In recent months, two groups of robbers have launched brazen plots to rob Maryland banks by kidnapping branch managers at their homes and forcing them at gunpoint to lead thieves to the loot. Both plots - including one last weekend in which a Clinton family was kidnapped - were ultimately foiled by authorities. The two cases in Southern Maryland are among a small run of incidents across the country this year in which robbers kidnap bank employees to gain entry to a bank. But even as official statistics kept by the FBI show that bank robberies are on the rise this year, the agency doesn't track kidnappings of bank officials in its quarterly statistics because such incidents remain rare, an FBI spokesman said.

CHICAGO -- It is considered one of the great unsolved mysteries of FBI history: how a seemingly quiet man in his mid-40s hijacked an airliner somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev., in November 1971, then parachuted out in his loafers and trench coat, making off with $200,000 in cash. Who was he? Did he survive? After all these years, federal authorities say they still do not know, and the case lingers and vexes and fascinates as the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history.

Troy Gross Sr. was supposed to turn himself in at a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Feb. 20 to serve an eight-year sentence for possessing an illegal handgun. Instead, on that day he walked into a Wachovia bank in Northeast Baltimore, pointed a gun at a 67-year-old woman and threatened to open fire if he didn't get money. It was the second time in three weeks he had held up the same bank branch on Northern Parkway. The woman fainted. An off-duty Baltimore police sergeant who was working security shot and wounded Gross.

Keeping criminals in jail is real key Putting more police on the street will do nothing to improve Baltimore's safety unless criminals, once caught and convicted, are locked up ("Residents want to see more police on beats," May 2). I noticed in Wednesday's paper that a man who was convicted of second-degree murder in March, after being convicted of second-degree murder in 1979 and for a string of bank robberies in 1995, "received a suspended sentence and probation in the killing" ("Convicted robber, killer indicted in April holdup of East Baltimore bank," May 2)

A 23-year-old Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to almost six years in federal prison for a series of bank robberies, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Terron A. Moore had pleaded guilty in January to robbing the Provident Bank on Chesaco Avenue in Rosedale on May 31. He had given a teller a note warning that he had a gun and demanding money. He was given $3,131 inside an envelope, but a dye pack also placed inside the envelope exploded as he tried to leave, prosecutors said.

A District Court judge ordered a man suspected of using threatening notes to rob 10 Baltimore banks held without bail yesterday after police charged him in one of the robberies. Police charging documents filed in court against Elmer H. Warfield III, 36, accuse him of passing a holdup note to a teller at Carrollton Bank in the 300 block of N. Charles St. on Tuesday morning. "This is a hold up, put lose money in the bag," the note said, according to the charging document. The robber then passed a small black plastic bag to the teller, who filled it with about $1,300 cash and a dye pack.

A man who Baltimore police suspect committed nearly half of the city's 21 bank robberies this year was arrested after a chase through downtown yesterday, ending a manhunt for a robber who demanded money using notes instead of guns. Police said the suspect - identified as Elmer H. Warfield, 36 - is the brother of a top police commander in the city's Northwestern District. A department spokesman said detectives interviewed the commander, Deputy Maj. Nathan A. Warfield, and are confident that he knew nothing of the robberies.

A 26-year-old soldier from Bowie appeared in federal court in Baltimore yesterday on charges that he smuggled assault rifles out of Iraq that were later used by others in six Washington-area bank robberies. In October 2003, witnesses saw Leonard Stephan Lockley placing the component parts of AK-47-style rifles into a large black metal chest with a false bottom, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors in Baltimore. At the time, Lockley was deployed near Baghdad. Lockley's standing in the military was unclear yesterday.