Fillmore bank robbed, SPPD assists in search for suspect
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Police Department
Published: December 26, 2008
Santa Paula Police assisted Ventura County Sheriffs in the search for the suspect in a Fillmore bank robbery that occurred Tuesday morning.
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
Santa Paula Police assisted Ventura County Sheriffs in the search for the suspect in a Fillmore bank robbery that occurred Tuesday morning. The robbery of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust was reported December 23 at about 9:15 a.m. The bank is located at 566 Sespe Avenue.
The robber, who displayed a handgun during the crime, announced he was robbing the bank and ordered everyone on the floor. He used profanity and threatened to kill those who interfered and demanded that stacks of bills not be “strapped” before he got away with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was injured during the incident.
Sheriff’s deputies - including a VCSD helicopter - searched the area around the bank, and Santa Paula Police Chief Steve MacKinnon said SPPD officers also provided assistance.
The request for SPPD officers came “right at the tail end” of a coordinated effort by the SPPD and Ventura Police in executing warrants related to two separate shootings, one that killed a Santa Paula resident, Richard Acevedo, 21, in Saticoy and the second the Sunday wounding of a man on Santa Paula’s Cadway Street.
“We had just completed the activity on Acacia Road,” where a suspect in the Sunday shooting was arrested, when the VCSD asked for assistance. “We had some officers available, Special Response Team members that we loaned” that MacKinnon said were dispatched to Fillmore to assist in the search for the bank robber.
The robber was described as a Hispanic male in his 30s, 5’6”-5’8” tall, 130-140 pounds with a mustache and appearing unshaven. At the time of the robbery the suspect was wearing a black jacket with a blue collar, blue baseball cap, and sunglasses.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 888-226-8443 or the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department at 654-9511 or the VCSD Fillmore Substation at 524-2233. Information can be provided anonymously, and a reward might be available.
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