City of Manvel

By John Tompkins
The Facts  

Published April 23, 2008

MANVEL — Manvel police and FBI agents were looking late Tuesday for a man who robbed a bank at gunpoint that morning.

A man walked into the Manvel branch of the First National Bank of Alvin in the 20100 block of Highway 6 about 9:45 a.m. and pulled a semi-automatic pistol on an employee, walked to a teller’s window and demanded money from another employee, Manvel Police Sgt. Jay Coffman said.

“She just grabbed a bunch of money and handed it to him,” Coffman said. “They hit a panic alarm.”

Police don’t know how much money the employee gave the man, but he left soon after and still was at large late Tuesday, Coffman said.

Police have some video footage of the robbery and describe the robber as a black man, about 6 feet tall with a thin build, he said.

The man wore a bandanna over his face and was wearing a tan jumpsuit or coveralls, Coffman said.

None of the bank employees were harmed, but they were visibly shaken, FBI special agent Patricia Villafranca said.

“No shots were fired,” she said.

There were no customers inside the bank when the robbery happened, though a few were outside watching, Coffman said.

“They never went inside,” he said. “In fact, they left.”

None of the witnesses inside the bank or outside were able to tell police how the man left nor could they describe a vehicle he might have used, Coffman said.

A manager inside the bank said she could not comment about the robbery. Officials with the bank’s main branch in Alvin were not available for comment.

This is the third time the Manvel branch has been robbed in the past 12 months.

Samuel Smith, 28, and Datrick Washington, 22, both of Houston, were charged with attempting to rob the bank last August, and federal agents have said they also might be responsible for a May 2007 robbery of the same branch.

Washington remained in custody at the Brazoria County Detention Center on $100,000 bond late Tuesday as he awaits trial. Smith pleaded guilty in February and received 13 years in prison as part of a plea agreement, according to online court records.

Coffman said he is not sure, but it is likely three robberies of the same bank in such a short time frame is a coincidence.

“It’s really hard to say,” he said. “But it’s unusual to hit the same bank three times.”

Anyone with information about the robbery can call the Manvel Police Department at (281) 489-1212.