Thursday, June 01, 2000
Two held in bank holdup
Third man got away in foot chase
By Sara J. Bennett
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WYOMING — A quiet morning at the Fifth Third Bank on Wyoming Avenue turned terrifying Wednesday when three men barged in the back door brandishing handguns.
One man grabbed a clerk by the hair and put a gun to her head. The other two jumped the counter and forced tellers to the floor. The robbers emptied the cash drawers, then hurried away.
Traumatized, bank workers still managed to get a good look at the getaway car.
That made all the difference.
A Cincinnati police detective heard a partial license plate number and description of the white Chevy Corsica over his radio. He spotted the vehicle, gave chase, and Hamilton County's 31st bank robbery in a record-breaking year ended with arrests.
“I can't compliment the clerks in that bank enough,” said Wyoming Police Chief Tim World. “They were the ones who closed this case for us, and I can't compliment them enough for how brave they were.”
Derrick Mitchell, 27, and Franklin Thomas, 26, of Evanston were charged with two counts each of aggravated robbery — one count for robbing the bank, the other for taking a teller's purse at gunpoint.
Police were looking Wednesday night for a third suspect.
The FBI is investigating whether Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Thomas are involved in other recent bank robberies. Springfield Township and Evendale police also are looking for connections to robberies in their areas, Chief World said.
Bank robberies have become epidemic in Greater Cincinnati. Last year, there were 28 in Hamilton County. This year, the problem is so widespread that even police in quiet, low-crime communities such as Wyoming have stepped up patrols.
Wednesday morning, a police cruiser had pulled out of the Fifth Third bank parking lot just moments before the robbers pulled in.
After the robbery, tellers watched through the back windows as the getaway car sped off.
Cincinnati police and a Hamilton County Sheriff's Department helicopter chased the suspects' Chevy
through Clifton Heights until it ran into a police cruiser parked in the street on Chickasaw.
The men got out, and police chased them on foot. Nearby, officials at Fairview German Language School rushed to lock doors and keep students safe.
Police eventually recovered three guns, all the money that was stolen, and the teller's purse.
Daniel Fischer, senior vice president of retail administration for Fifth Third, said no one was seriously hurt in the robbery, and no customers were in the building.
In the wake of recent holdups, bank officials have been “increasing the frequency of discussions” about what workers should do under those circumstances, he said.
The tellers in Wednesday's robbery did just what they should, Chief World said. They remembered as much as they could about the robbers and their car.
“Some of those clerks were extremely traumatized by this,” he said. “So to carry this one step further and help us close this case is a great compliment to them.”
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