New York Daily News

He’s sprung & robs bank, say police

- BY THOMAS TRACY

A bank robbery suspect released at his arraignmen­t under New York’s bail reforms wasted no time getting back to his illegal business, police sources said Saturday.

Gerod Woodberry was busted Wednesday in a string of bank robberies stretching back to Dec. 30.

He was released without bail Thursday, and at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday he became a “person of interest” in a bank robbery at a Chase branch on Flatbush Ave. near Nevins St. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, sources said.

Workers said someone fitting Woodberry’s descriptio­n came into the bank, handed a threatenin­g note to a teller, and ran off with an undetermin­ed amount of cash.

Cops but the brakes on the bank robbery streak Woodberry, 42, began carrying out Dec. 30 after he robbed a bank in the West Village, NYPD Commission­er Dermot Shea said on Twitter.

Police on blasted Woodberry’s picture Wednesday to every officer’s smart phone.

A few hours later, an offduty cop on his way to work saw Woodberry on the Upper West Side, and helped take him into custody.

But at his arraignmen­t, he was ordered released without bail because he was charged with robbery in the third degree and grand larceny, non-violent felonies that don’t meet the new state requiremen­ts for bail to be imposed.

Shea blasted Woodberry’s release.

“What motivation does this person have to return to court? None,” Shea tweeted. “This makes NYPD cops’ jobs harder and makes New Yorkers less safe.”

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