2 arrested in Mpls. bank robbery that preceded wild getaway

A day after an Uptown bank robber and his accomplice left behind stolen cars, cracked-up vehicles, injured bystanders and bloody evidence, two suspects were arrested Tuesday in a St. Paul motel, authorities said.

The two men await federal charges in connection with the holdup about 9 a.m. Monday of the TCF Bank on Lake Street in Minneapolis, just west of Hennepin Avenue, police said.

The 40-year-old man suspected of robbing the bank and the 49-year-old suspected getaway driver, who allegedly stole the car from a fellow halfway house resident in Minneapolis, have both been convicted of bank robbery previously. They both are also fugitives from federal custody in halfway houses, authorities said.

According to the FBI:

A man in the bank gave a teller a note Monday morning demanding cash. The teller turned over an undisclosed amount; the robber demanded more and threatened to shoot the teller. The teller said he had no more money, and the suspect pointed a can of Mace and pulled the trigger, but it failed.

The robber left and joined his accomplice in a stolen Acura. They crashed their speeding vehicle into a BMW and several parked cars about 12 blocks away, at W. 24th Street and Bryant Avenue S. Two people in the BMW were slightly hurt.

Bleeding from his face and having abandoned the Acura, the robber tried to hijack a parked car from a woman who was warming it up.

When she struggled with him, the robber told his accomplice to shoot her. No shots were fired, and no gun was displayed, but the suspects sped away in the car, which Minneapolis police later recovered.

Numerous items were found in the abandoned Acura, including money and a red baseball cap resembling one worn by the man shown in surveillance video robbing the bank, authorities said. Fresh blood also was detected inside the vehicle.

The BMW driver, Michael Gilliland, said he and a friend had entered what he thought was a clear intersection at 24th and Bryant. "There wasn't anybody there, and suddenly there was -- at an extremely high rate of speed," he said.

Gilliland said the impact spun his car around, and he saw the Acura race down Bryant and "fly into a couple of other [parked] cars" until it stopped.

Gilliland said he was left with "aches and pains" from the collision, while his passenger took a blow to the head.

Christie Walters-Beck, whose car was among those hit, said she had just parked it when "I heard all the smashing and crashing of all the vehicles."

The Acura had been reported stolen Saturday from a halfway house on the 2800 block of E. Lake Street in Minneapolis, where the alleged getaway driver lived. He is suspected of stealing the car and violating terms of his release to the halfway house.

That suspect had served time previously for holding up a TCF branch in St. Paul, according to court documents and the U.S. Marshals Service in Minneapolis.

He unwittingly helped law enforcement track him and his cohort down by paying for a room at the Highway Motel on W. 7th Street with a credit card stolen from the Acura's owner, said U.S. Marshals Service Deputy Paul Keyes.

The other person arrested also was wanted by the Marshals Service for leaving a halfway house in Las Vegas while under federal custody following a bank robbery conviction in Nevada, Keyes said.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482