Dozens of police officers swarmed a West Eugene neighborhood less than a mile away from student housing shortly after 3 p.m. on Monday and apprehended two bank robbery suspects seen running from a local bank just minutes earlier.
The two men, both of Eugene, were transported to the Lane County Jail and will likely face federal charges related to the bank robbery, according to police, who have not yet released the names of the suspects. The robbery and subsequent arrests ended with no injuries to suspects or police. Authorities would not say how much money was stolen or whether any had been recovered.
“We’re checking all the Dumpsters in the area,” one witness quipped.
Eugene Police Department Sgt. Scott McKee said one of the suspects allegedly approached Pacific Cascade Federal Credit Union at 1155 Chambers St. at 3:08 p.m. and gave a note to a teller demanding money. An EPD press release stated that a credit union employee said the man then fled west. One bystander, an 11-year-old girl, said she saw two men running down the street and into a house two blocks west at 1208 Grant St.
McKee said one of the suspects, who identified himself as the renter, came out of the house when police surrounded the building at 3:19 p.m. The other suspect hid in the attic until a canine unit from the Springfield Police Department flushed him out.
“When he heard the dog barking and coming up into the attic, he gave himself up,” McKee said.
Police cordoned off the blocks between Chambers Street and Grant Alley and West 11th and 13th avenues for 90 minutes. At 5 p.m., there were still more than a dozen police vehicles in the area, including at least nine police cars, several unmarked detective cars, a police truck and two police motorcycles. Officers and detectives milled around the run-down blue house and ducked under yellow police tape as they secured the area. Several officers brandished assault rifles, and McKee said FBI agents were also on the scene.
McKee, who has been a member of the Violent Crimes Unit for four years, said the robbery was highly unusual because police acting on a tip were able to respond and apprehend the suspects very quickly.
“It doesn’t happen real often,” he said. “When we receive reliable information like we did today, we take it seriously.”
McKee said the FBI is handling further details of the case because as a second-degree robbery, it wouldn’t be pursued in the state court system.