Suspects Disappear After Bank Robbery

Residents of several Rowland Heights apartments were evacuated early Friday as members of a special weapons and tactics team searched for an armed robber who had taken more than $21,000 in cash from a nearby Bank of America.

No suspects were found during the 4-hour operation in the 1900 block of South Batson Avenue, sheriff’s deputies said.

The robbery occurred at 9:15 a.m. when a man with a handgun walked into the bank, on Nogales Street and Colima Road, and moments later left with the cash. Police were not sure if man asked for the money verbally or with a note.

He got into a gray Ford Thunderbird with the license plates covered and was driven away by another man.

Fifteen minutes later the same car was seen speeding into the parking lot of the nearby Batson Avenue apartment complex.

Two dozen sheriff’s deputies and SWAT team members who were called to the scene immediately began evacuating residents on both sides of an apartment that was listed as the home of the person who rented the Thunderbird, said Rafael Estrada of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.

But it was not certain that the two suspects ever entered the apartment building.

The woman who lives in the apartment told authorities she never saw anyone. Sheriff’s deputies do not believe the woman was connected to the crime.