Wichita man, with lengthy rap sheet, arrested in bank robbery, records show

A 54-year-old Wichita man with a lengthy criminal past has been arrested in the Wednesday afternoon bank robbery where $2,000 was taken, according to arrest records released Friday morning.

The man’s home address is a motel less than a half-mile from the Equity Bank at 7701 E. Kellogg that was robbed, records show. The suspect gave the teller a note demanding money and then ran off.

He was arrested near the Dollar General in Derby on Thursday and booked into Sedgwick County Jail at 8:20 p.m. that night, records show. He remained jailed Friday morning.

Police “located a vehicle connected to the suspect,” Wichita police spokesperson Juan Rebolledo said in a news release. “During a traffic stop, robbery detectives and FBI agents gathered critical information about the suspect’s location. ... Detectives observed the individual walking away from a location and directed marked units to his position. The suspect was taken into custody without incident.”

The robbery occurred at about 4:12 p.m. Wednesday.

Wichita police also responded to a 6 p.m. Wednesday robbery at Intrust Bank at 1544 S. Webb, which is about two miles from the first robbery. The suspect brandished a gun and demanded money from the teller.

Police did not think the two robberies were connected. No one appeared on the Friday morning booking records as being arrested in the Intrust Bank robbery. It’s not clear how much money was taken in that case.

The man arrested in the Equity Bank robbery has 36 Kansas convictions, all for Sedgwick County cases, for crimes between 2000 to 2018, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. Twenty-seven of those convictions are for forgery, seven for identity theft or theft and two for criminal possession of a firearm by a felon, the records show.

He also was arrested multiple times this past year in cases that he has not yet been charged in, records show.

This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 8:58 AM.