A crowd gathered wide-eyed at the entrance to Rita Marley’s estate on Cable Beach yesterday, just before lunchtime to witness a suspected bank robber being subdued by police officers following what wasdsescribed as a “frenzied chase”.
Employees and clients at the Cable Beach branch of the Royal Bank of Canada were shaken up yesterday when according to a source, who claimed that “an easy going looking young guy who was standing on the line with everyone else suddenly changed skin.”
One source, who was at the scene at the time of the robbery and speaking only on condition of anonymity, claimed that a man with dreadlocks, believed to be in his late twenties, stood on the line the entire time, “but it wasn’t until the teller said ‘next in line’ that he apporached her with a gun and jumped over the table waving the weapon in the tellers’ faces.”
“Pandemonium broke out inside the bank” as the customers ducked and doged out of harm’s way, according to Mr. Dames.
He claimed that his officers arrived on the scene within minutes of receiving a call from personnel at the Royal Bank of Canada.
It was estimated that about eight officers – most of them in plainclothes “reached just in time” to spota man fleeing with a black sack containing an undetermined amount of cash.
It was reported that the man tried to escape on foot when attempts to get into a woman’s car failed.
The lady locked herself inside her car after being alerted to what was happening.
The woman had parked in front of the bank and was about to get out of her car to go into the bank.
When officers made the arrest, Mr. Dames said they recovered a .35 chrome revolver with a bag of cash. The amount has not yet been confirmed.
Source: Danielle Stubbs, The Tribune
