Suspect linked to robberies

April 2 bank robbery leads to arrest, then police charge 31-year-old man with two more robberies and a bomb threat

A Medicine Hat man arrested on April 2 following an armed robbery of a local bank has now been charged in relation to two other bank robberies and a bomb threat to another.

Ronald Big Bull appeared before court from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre Thursday, with his lawyer requesting adjournment to April 18 for a bail hearing.

The 31-year-old Hatter was arrested following an April 2 incident where at 5:30p.m., a male suspect entered the TD Canada Trust bank on Strachan Road, produced a handgun and demanded cash.

“We don’t want anyone to put themselves in danger or harms way,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Holt with the Medicine Hat Police Service’s major crimes unit, but said a “huge factor” in making the arrest was civilian witnesses, including one person who grabbed a photo of the suspect’s vehicle.

“That was the starting point,” said Holt, as this led police to Big Bull — and linked him to earlier bank robberies at the CIBC bank on March 19, and ATB bank on Nov. 9, 2017, as well as calling in a bomb threat to the Servus Credit Union on Oct. 31, 2017. While investigations into these incidents were ongoing, Holt said there was “nothing concrete” pointing to a suspect. “There’s just so little to recognize physically,” he said of evidence like footage of the suspect.

With this week’s arrest, Holt said police were able to link to him some physical evidence from previous robberies, and the accused provided a statement.

Holt said the accused’s motivation appears to be “desperation and poor decisions,” and nothing to indicate it was to feed a drug habit.

Big Bull is charged with robbery with a firearm (or imitation), an additional two counts of robbery, three counts of wearing a disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence, and one count of uttering threats.