Cleaning up something we reported on last week with some new details including an alleged bank robber fleeing through the streets of Capitol Hill covered in dye and trailing smoke behind him as he left the crime scene.
We previously reported on East Precinct commander Capt. Paul McDonagh arresting a man after a bank hold-up on Broadway. Here is what we have learned about the June 24 incident from a court document provided by the King County prosecutor’s office.
According to the police report, the attempted hold-up unfolded in near-comic circumstances as the Chase Bank teller slipped an explosive dye pack in with the cash handed to the would-be robber. Witnesses said the robber smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated. Bank employees said the man told them he had a bomb in his backpack and two guns — we said near-comic — and demanded money. “I am going to kill somebody here if I don’t get my money!” the man allegedly yelled.
According to the report, as the man left the bank with the loot, the pack exploded sending a cloud of red dye and smoke streaming from the suspect’s jacket. Capt. McDonagh found the jacket near Broadway and Pike a short time later and saw the man covered in red dye walking away. The dye-covered suspect, William James Poor-Bear, was stopped by McDonagh and placed under arrest after a bank employee fingered him as the robber. He faces arraignment on July 13th, according to the prosecutor’s office.
