Eight suspects face charges in armed robbery of Katy bank
Eight Houston residents face federal charges after an armed bank robbery last week at First Community Credit Union in Katy, the U.S. attorney announced Friday.
The eight people, who range in age from 19 to 31, are charged with participating in a bank robbery and using firearms to commit a violent crime. The criminal complaint used to file charges gives this account:
A black Toyota Tundra pickup pulled up to the bank in the 23100 block of Cinco Ranch about 1 p.m. July 25.
Three people entered the bank and ordered everyone to the floor. Two people jumped the teller counter and forced employees to open the cash drawers, brandishingapistolandpunchingoneemployeewho was not moving quickly enough.
While that happened, the third robber displayed a handgun to keep customers and employees quiet. The robbers seemed to be communicatingviacellphonewithsomeone outside the bank.
Within a few minutes, a fourth robber came in to the bank and screamed: “The cops are down the street. Let’s go!”
The four robbers in the bank fled in the Toyota Tundra; other people drove away in three more vehicles.
Police arrest suspects after robbery
Police stopped those three vehicles and arrested four occupants, prosecutors said: Jaylen Christine Loring, 21; Daryl Carlton Anderson, 31; Deandre Bendard Santee, 26; and Johnathon Nico Wise, 26.
The four suspects in the Toyota Tundra hit the road. The driver refused to stop when police tried to pull over the vehicle, leading officers on a 19-mile chase that ended near Memorial Park at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Post Oak.
Four men left the car and fled, police said. One of them, 19-year-old Raymond Demond Pace, ran in front of the still-moving pickup and got pinned against a wall, where he was arrested.
Another of the pickup’s occupants was stopped near the truck by a police officer and canine, police said. Prosecutors say that man was Zelmer Samuel Bonner, 26.
Houston police officers locked down the apartment complex, and a SWAT team swarmed the area for several hours searching for the last two suspects.
Police found those two men holed up inside an apartment in the nearby complex. They negotiated for several hours before leaving and getting arrested.
Prosecutors said a handgun was found with those final two suspects, who were identified as 25-year-old Derrick Eugene Delane and 30-year-old Walter Freeman Jordan, aka “Wacko.”
‘They’re operating together’
At a media briefing that day, HPD Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said local law enforcement agencies had been tracking the group, but he declined to definitively say they were part of a gang.
“We know that they’re operating together,andtheycertainlyhavealotofthingsthat suggest that they might be part of a larger group,” he said.
Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez credited the charges to the Houston Law Enforcement Violent Crime Initiative, which brings together the FBI, HPD and other agencies.
Six of the eight suspects appeared before a federal magistrate judge Friday morning, Martinez said in a news release. Loring had a hearing Thursday, and Pace “is expected to make his first appearance in the near future.”