Gunman Robs 2nd Bank in a Week, FBI Agents Say

For the second time in less than a week, the same lone gunman robbed a bank in Santa Clarita on Friday, FBI agents said.

The man who ran into the Wells Fargo branch in Canyon Country brandishing a large-caliber pistol at two tellers as he demanded money was the same bandit who robbed Valencia National Bank in similar fashion Monday, agents said.

He also robbed a Downey Savings & Loan branch in Lancaster on March 18, they said.

On Friday, the gunman entered the bank in the 19310 block of Soledad Canyon Road about 12:30 p.m. and demanded cash from the bank manager. With the robber screaming at her, the manager told him she was without her key to the cash drawers, said FBI Agent Brent Robbins.

While she retrieved her key, the gunman moved to the next teller and robbed her before taking money obtained by the bank manager. As he made his escape on foot, the robber pushed a woman, who was holding her child in her arms, to the ground. Neither the woman, child nor the bank tellers were injured, FBI agents said.

The robber was seen getting into a brown mid-’80s Oldsmobile driven by another man.

The gunman was described as white, about 20 years old, with a blond crew cut, said Deputy Ignacio Somoano of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Santa Clarita station. He is about 6 feet tall, weighs about 170 pounds and was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and a black ski mask and gloves, Somoano said.

The man waiting in the car was also white, about 19, with black hair, wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, Somoano said.

The men were last seen driving south on Whites Canyon Road off Soledad Canyon Road, authorities said.