Tipster, coincidence led to arrest in deadly NY bank robbery

ROCHESTER >> Investigators say a tipster pointed them to the man charged this week in a 13-year-old fatal bank robbery, but the suspect coincidentally came to them on his own.

Richard Leon Wilbern was arrested Tuesday when he went to meet with FBI agents in Rochester to discuss a fraud complaint he recently filed.

Wilbern had been on the FBI’s radar since March, when a caller reported that he’d robbed a bank on the Xerox Corp. campus in 2003, fatally shooting one customer and wounding another.

Federal authorities say Wednesday they matched DNA from an umbrella left at the bank to a sample they surreptitiously collected from Wilbern when he met with them about his complaint.

Wilbern appeared in federal court Tuesday, where he requested a public defender.