A felony charge was filed today against a 47-year-old man who may be the “Desperate Bandit,” blamed for nine bank robberies in Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties.
Surveillance photo’s of the ‘Desperate Bandit.’ (Riverside Sheriff)
Read: ‘Desperate Bandit’ strikes Temecula Bank, police release surveillance photos.
Michael Patrick Downing of Chino Hills was charged with robbery for allegedly robbing a 1st Bank branch in Indio on Friday.
He was scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. at Indio’s Larson Justice Center.
Police stopped Downing on westbound Interstate 10 between Washington and Cook streets in a white Toyota Corolla used in the robbery at 1st Bank in the 82-900 block of Avenue 42, Ben Guitron of the Indio Police Department said.
The robbery was reported about 11:35 a.m. Friday Nov. 23.
The robber handed the teller a demand note and said he had a handgun, Guitron said. After getting an undisclosed sum, the robber fled in a white Toyota Corolla, Guitron said.
An officer working Black Friday patrol spotted the westbound Corolla on the freeway near Monroe Street about 11:50 a.m., Guitron said.
A 2-liter bottle containing a clear liquid and rigged with wiring to look like a bomb was found in the Toyota, but a sheriff’s bomb squad determined it was inert, Guitron said.
Police notified the FBI about Downing’s arrest and learned he might be the robber agents dubbed the “Desperate Bandit,” he said.
Downing “admitted he had done several bank robberies until he was stopped today by the Indio police officers,” Guitron said.
Robberies linked to the “Desperate Bandit” include one on Sept. 14 at the Bank of America branch on Green River Road in Corona and at U.S. Bank and Bank of the West branches in Anaheim, Chino, Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia and Tustin.
Downing was being held at the county jail in Indio in lieu of $175,000 bail, according to jail records.
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