Several people questioned, but bank robber gets away
Officials say the man who robbed a Port Richey bank might be a suspect in a string of robberies.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published August 20, 2004
PORT RICHEY - Ervin Kearney is not the man who has robbed as many as 10 banks this summer in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. But for a few moments Thursday morning, authorities thought he might be.
Kearney wore dark sunglasses and kept his face tilted toward the ground as he walked into an Eckerd drugstore about 11 a.m. Minutes earlier, about a mile away, a man had robbed the 1st Kensington Bank on Regency Park Boulevard. The suspect was black. So was 33-year-old Kearney. A Pasco County sheriff's detective approached him.
Kearney showed him an appointment card from the eye doctor's office he had just left. "I let him know my eyes were still dilated" and sensitive to the sun, Kearney told a reporter afterward. "I didn't want him to think I was trying not to look at him or anything."
The detective called Kearney's doctor, then apologized for the inconvenience.
Moments later, a deputy spotted a gold Cadillac on Jasmine Boulevard. It resembled a description of the robber's getaway car.
"Get on the ground!" he yelled at two men and a woman as they got out of the car. Two of them did, but one man fled. More than a dozen deputies, a helicopter and a search dog combed the area. Deputies sent residents a reverse 911 call, warning them that a possibly armed fugitive was on the loose.
Deputies found drugs in the car. And a resident's tip led deputies to the man who fled. He told detectives he ran because he had no driver's license. He was not the robber, sheriff's officials say.
Detectives had not caught the robber by Thursday evening. He is described as about 20 years old, 5 feet 9 and 160 pounds.
He presented a note to a bank teller indicating he had a gun (although he never displayed one), then fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Detectives believe a partner drove the getaway car.
The Sheriff's Office thinks a man with a similar description is responsible for five other bank robberies in Pasco County, two in Clearwater and two in Hillsborough County. But detectives had not confirmed that Thursday's robber was the same man.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Detective Pete Weekes at 1-800-854-2862, ext. 7279.
