2 bank robbery suspects in jail

By CATHY LOGG

Herald Writer

EVERETT — An untimely stop at a gas station and a yen for a cup of coffee led to the capture Thursday of a man suspected of robbing a bank 90 minutes earlier.

Subsequent investigation led Everett police and the FBI to a second man later, and police say the two may be responsible for at least four bank robberies in Everett.

Investigators questioned a 38-year-old Everett man and recovered evidence of the crime, resulting in his arrest. Details of the arrest of the second man were unavailable late Thursday. Both were booked into Snohomish County Jail on investigation of four counts each of second-degree robbery, Everett Police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said.

The holdup at Washington Mutual Savings Bank in the 10000 block of First Drive SE and Everett Mall Way about 11 a.m. was the county’s 33rd bank robbery this year.

A lone man entered the bank, picked up a bank deposit slip at a counter, wrote his demand note, and handed it to a teller, FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said. The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money, and the robber fled west along Everett Mall Way, Lauer said. The robber did not display a weapon, and no one was injured.

While fleeing, he apparently put the money in his coat, according to witnesses who saw a dye pack explode, staining the money and presumably the man’s coat red, Lauer said.

Witnesses said the man hopped into the passenger side of a gray, two-door, subcompact car, a late 1970’s or early 1980’s model, possibly a Subaru Justy or a Ford Fiesta, and fled south, Lauer said.

About 1:30 p.m., a clerk at a gas station in the 11100 block of Evergreen Way summoned police about a suspicious man, Bryant said. The man left, but while police were talking to a witness, the clerk pointed out the suspect at a nearby coffee stand.

The man matched the robber’s description and police detained him, Bryant said. In a subsequent investigation, the man was identified as the robber, Bryant said.