Bank Robbery Suspect Arrested in Santa Monica
Police on Thursday arrested a man suspected of robbing a bank and fleeing with a satchel full of money to a restaurant on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
The glass doors of the Monsoon restaurant were shattered when police fired at the suspect. He was not hit and suffered only facial cuts from flying glass, police said. No one inside was injured.
The suspect, a gray-haired man believed to be in his 40s, entered California Federal Bank on Second Street and Wilshire Boulevard about 2:40 p.m., pointed a .44-caliber handgun at a male teller and demanded money, said Santa Monica police spokesman Lt. Gary Gallinot.
Officers saw the man as he fled the building on foot carrying a black bag, and chased him up Wilshire onto Third Street to the restaurant.
The suspect, whose name was not released by police, brandished his weapon at officers, who fired shots, Gallinot said.
He is suspected of trying to rob a Home Savings of America branch on Santa Monica Boulevard about half an hour before the Cal Fed incident.
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