Witness reports lead to arrest of suspected bank robber in Costa Mesa
An alleged bank robber was arrested soon after fleeing the scene last Friday thanks to help of witness reports.
At 1:49 PM, Costa Mesa police were alerted to a robbery in progress at a bank located in a shopping center on Harbor Boulevard. When they arrived, witnesses at the scene reported that the suspect had left and walked out onto Harbor Boulevard.
Additionally, “witnesses provided CMPD Communications with updated suspect description and his direction of travel,” according to the police department press release. “With this information, CMPD officers located the suspect at a nearby construction site and detained him pending witness identification.”
The suspect was promptly arrested for robbery after witnesses positively identified him.
Police found that the suspect had used a note during the robbery. No one reported injuries due to the incident, and because police were able to act so quickly, some of the stolen money was recovered.
Following the arrest of the suspect, an additional bank in the same shopping center called to report an attempted robbery that occurred about 10 minutes prior to the first robbery. “At this time, this is an active investigation and CMPD officers and detectives are working to determine if the arrestee was responsible for the attempted bank robbery; therefore, the name of the arrestee is being withheld,” states the release.
“CMPD thanks the witnesses that provided CMPD with information that led to the arrest of the suspect.”
