Robbery Suspect Nabbed
Kingston, Ontario August 9, 2009
Kingston Police credit a taxi surveillance camera with helping them solve a bank robbery in just a few hours.
The Royal Bank branch at Princess and King streets was held up Thursday just before 1 p. m. by a man who threatened a clerk and got away with about $200. Less than eight hours later, police arrested an ex-convict who was living in Kingston on early release from prison.
William Richards, 25, of Durham Street in Kingston, was arrested at 8:30 p. m. Thursday night at York and Nelson streets. He's charged with robbery and wearing a disguise in connection with the holdup.
In the stickup, a man told a clerk that he had .45-calibre handgun and ordered her to hand over thousands of dollars in cash. He was wearing sunglasses and a ballcap. He ran out with a few hundred dollars and jumped in a taxi at King and Queen streets that was just depositing a passenger.
"The woman hadn't even got out of the back seat," said Det. Const. Clint Wills. "He jumped in the front seat and said, 'Take me up to Martha's Table.' "
The taxi was equipped with a surveillance camera that began snapping photos.
"We had lots of pictures of this guy and he was easily identified," Wills said. After that, it was a matter of hunting the suspect down. Richards was on statutory release from federal prison, Wills said.
Richards is completing a three-year sentence for armed robbery and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order, according to Corrections Canada. His sentence began Jan. 30, 2007. He was eligible on Jan. 29 this year for statutory release, a form of automatic early release that allows a criminal to serve the last third of his sentence in the community under conditions and supervision.
Richards was convicted of robbing a store in Gananoque, according to Wills.
No one was hurt in Thursday's holdup, though the victim was traumatized because of threats she faced from the robber. "He said, 'Let's not turn this into a murder,'" Wills said.
Police don't believe the bandit had a gun.
