CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
There have been two bank robberies in two days, the second taking place Thursday at the Navy Army Community Credit Union in Flour Bluff.
A man is now facing up to 99 years behind bars after police apprehended him following the Thursday morning bank robbery.
Just one day before, the Texas Champion Bank on Gollihar and Ayers was robbed. Police have not said whether the two bank robberies are connected.
Just before 11 a.m. Thursday, a man walked into the Navy Army Community Credit Union in Flour Bluff bank and demanded cash. Police have not said just how much he received, but the bank teller did manage to see the license plate of the suspect's vehicle, helping police confirm that they had the right man when they found him and his white Mazda at the Oasis Tavern on Waldron Road.
Police surrounded 58-year-old Michael Richey, who had blood all over him. EMT's on the scene cleaned him off and he was taken to the hospital. According to Rodney Hamilton, who was inside of the bar when the arrest happened, the suspect came in to have a Budweiser after robbing the bank.
"He just walked in, just like you think anybody else would," Hamilton said. "Just a regular customer ordering a beer. He got it, sat there and had a few sips out of it. Then he walks outside and I'm thinking he's going out to have a cigarette. Then next ten or fifteen minutes later, I hear all this commotion going on and all I heard was he had a gun."
"When the officers contacted him out on the street, he did have a handle that was one of those spray paint handles that you get from the hardware store," said Officer Kirk Stowers of the Corpus Christi Police Department. "Plastic handle. Looks like a firearm, that was in his waist band."
Police said they thought it was a weapon, but exercised great restraint in not using deadly force against the suspect.
Richey has an extensive criminal background. County records show he has three convictions for forgery, one conviction for assault/attempted murder, one conviction for possession of methamphetamines and numerous convictions for theft and robbery. He was even sentenced to 35 years in jail in 1993.
He will be facing another charge for what happened Thursday: aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony.
Police are continuing their search for the man who robbed the Texas Champion Bank on Gollihar and Ayers on Wednesday.
Surveillance video shows the man walking out of the bank at around 2 p.m. The man told the teller he had a weapon, but never displayed one. He got away on foot with the cash, without hurting anyone.
The suspect is described as a 40-year old white man, wearing a blue Corpus Christi Hooks cap, a dark blue shirt and faded blue jeans shorts. He had light facial hair.
