UPDATE, Friday, March 9, 10 a.m.: Kirkland Police Thursday night arrested an Everett man with an extensive criminal history on suspicion of robbing the Totem Lake Wells Fargo bank on Wednesday.
The Kirkland Police Department said in a press release the man entered the bank just after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday wearing a mask and implying that he had a weapon. He was arrested at about 11 p.m. Thursday in Everett.
The man, who has not been identified, has a criminal history that includes previous bank robberies. KPD detectives praised the work of officers who responded to the scene, as well as witnesses and citizens who provided assistance and helped identify the suspect.
Kirkland Police spokesman Sgt. Rob Saloum declined to explain how the suspect was identified if he was wearing a mask during the robbery. "There were events after the fact that helped lead us to him," Saloum said.
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Original story:
An armed man escaped after robbing the branch in Totem Lake Tuesday afternoon, the second bank robbery in Kirkland in a four-day period.
On Saturday, a woman robbed the branch in north Juanita.
Kirkland Police Department spokesman Sgt. Rob Saloum offered few details about Wednesday’s Wells Fargo robbery. “It happened a little after 3:30 (p.m.),” he said. “It was a male adult with a weapon who left on foot.”
Saloum said detectives working on the case asked that most details of the Wells Fargo robbery not be released, a possible indication they have strong leads in the case.
The FBI is handling the investigation of the Saturday bank robbery, Saloum said. All bank robberies are federal offenses, but investigations are sometimes handled by the FBI and sometimes by local jurisdictions.
The last previous bank robbery in Kirkland was at the branch in Juanita Village last August. The Bothell man convicted of that crime was recently sentenced to prison. See that story .
Patch has contacted the Seattle office of the FBI and will update this story as details in either robbery become available.
