SK bank hit two Fridays in a row

Exactly one week later to the hour, the man who robbed a bank on Mile Hill Drive two Fridays ago apparently returned to hold up the same branch, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

Spokesman Deputy Scott Wilson said the suspect entered the Washington Mutual Branch in the South Park Village shopping center shortly after 2:10 p.m. and “took over” the bank in the same manner as the first robbery June 23.

Wilson said witnesses reported that the robber ordered everyone inside the business to “get down” before gathering an undisclosed amount of cash and fleeing on foot. There were no reported injuries, and none of the witnesses reported seeing a weapon.

The robbery was reported to Kitsap County Central Communications at 2:15 p.m. after employees called 911 and triggered an alarm, Wilson said.

Within minutes, officers from the Port Orchard Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office responded to the bank, cordoning off the area and setting up a containment on nearby streets.

One of the streets heavily searched was Baby Doll Road, where a person matching the suspect’s description was reportedly seen carrying a white grocery bag. Officers, including a K-9 unit, combed the area for the suspect, aided at one point by at least one Washington State Patrol aircraft.

The attempts to locate the suspect were not successful.

A call to the bank was directed to Washington Mutual’s corporate offices in Seattle, which did not immediately respond.

Wilson said investigators are “quite certain” the suspect in last Friday’s robbery is the same man who held up the same Washington Mutual branch on June 23, as well as two robberies of the East Bremerton branch of Kitsap Bank on Wheaton Way that occurred on May 30 and on June 22, the day before the first SK robbery.

Wilson said that the FBI, which is still the lead agency in the robberies, released this description of the suspect: adult male in his mid-to-late 20s or early 30s, possibly Hispanic or an African-American with light skin tone; 5-6 to 5-10, with a thin moustache.

At the time of the robbery, witnesses said the suspect was wearing a short-sleeved, white T-shirt, dark jeans and white athletic shoes. He was also wearing a green, knit hat with a Seattle Sonics logo that was pulled down over his face.

Persons with information about the recent South Kitsap robberies or the suspect are requested to contact the FBI’s Seattle Office at (206) 622-0460, or Kitsap County Sheriff’s Detective Phil Doremus at (360) 337-5616, or Kitsap County Central Communications at 911.

Those wishing to remain anonymous may contact Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at (800) CRIME-13.

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