Suspect May Have Held Up 9 Banks

One of three suspects arrested during a two-day rash of Orange County bank robberies may be responsible for as many as nine bank robberies in the county this month, police said Thursday.

The suspect, Emerson Allan Stitt, 20, of Santa Monica also may have had a part in other robberies throughout the Southland, including some as far north as Ventura and Oxnard, said Fred Reagan, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles.

Stitt was arrested after a robbery was reported at 1:58 p.m. Wednesday at the First Interstate Bank branch at 2750 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. More than $1,000 was taken in the robbery, Newport Beach Police Department spokesman Trent Harris said.

Also arrested on Wednesday were Charles Rose, 33, address unknown, and David Barr, 42, of Lincoln, Ill. Both were arrested in connection with a robbery Wednesday at a Wells Fargo branch at 14601 Redhill Ave. in Tustin.

3 Held in Jail

Rose and Barr were being held for questioning Thursday at the Tustin city jail. Stitt was being held at the Newport Beach municipal jail.

Reagan said Thursday was uneventful for financial institutions and law enforcement agencies in Orange County after two days in which 13 bank robberies were reported.

“It’s quiet in comparison with the last few days,” Reagan said.

Officials were still busy on Thursday with paper work from the unusual number of robberies, said Frank Calley, a supervisor in the FBI’s Santa Ana office.

Calley said the three robbery suspects will be formally charged before a federal magistrate in Santa Ana today.

Between 12:59 p.m. and 3:25 p.m. Tuesday, robbers held up four banks and one savings and loan in Tustin, Irvine, El Toro, Fountain Valley and Laguna Hills.

On Wednesday, between 11:30 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., robbers hit two banking institutions in Tustin, two in Fountain Valley, and one each in Laguna Hills, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Anaheim.

Police said no shots were fired and no injuries were reported in any of the holdups. The robbers used notes or verbal orders to make their demands and, in some cases, they indicated to tellers that they had weapons, Calley said.

Reagan noted that Southern California has one of the largest bank robbery rates in the world. But he added that 13 robberies in the county in two days was “sufficiently unusual to keep local agencies busy.”

‘Just a Coincidence’

“I just think that a coincidence plays a big factor” for a sudden wave of robberies, Calley said. Reagan agreed, saying: “You could speculate until hell freezes over. . . . We might be able to determine a pattern later.”

Reagan said, however, that 80% to 95% of the robberies that occur are to support a narcotics habit.

In the Los Angeles area, he said, the large number of banks and a freeway system that allows for “a quick hit” contribute to the robbery rate there.

In Orange County, the number of bank robberies has declined since 1982, Calley said.

In 1982, 274 robberies were reported in the county, up from 211 in 1981 and 166 in 1980.

But in 1983, the number of reported robberies declined to 231; 220 were reported in 1984.

Last year, there were 196 reported robberies, with 57 of those occurring during the first two months of the year, Calley said. So far this year, 41 bank robberies have been reported.

Calley attributed the decline in part to beefed-up law enforcement during the 1984 Olympic Games.