Hello and welcome to this week's Sheriff's Corner. I'd like to use this weeks Corner to tell you about a bank robbery that happened last week at the Capital City bank in Bronson. I'm doing this because the total situation had the potential to hurt quite a few people. In fact, everyone pretty much did the right thing and only the robber was minimally hurt.
At about 12:25 pm on Wednesday, a lone man entered the Capital City Bank. After standing and waiting for a few moments, he went to a teller, passed a note which indicated he had a gun. He was given money by the teller and left the bank. Interestingly enough, one of the other patrons in the bank thought this man was suspicious and watched him. When the man left, the other customer followed him outside and watched his direction of travel. The customer was Bobby Durrance, a Levy County School Board employee. Mr. Durrance ultimately followed the suspect relaying information back to the Sheriff's Department. We had deputies and investigators in the area and following Mr. Durrance's directions we were able to position themselves in areas that might have afforded contact and capture.
However, the suspect ended up wrecking his vehicle after narrowly missing one of our deputies on a grated road. At this point the suspect was contacted and a Med unit was summoned to check him out. He ended up staying the night at an area hospital. He was ultimately charged with the aggravated assault of the deputy and bank robbery.
We appreciate and encourage citizen involvement with our agency and with what we do. Probably not to this level. What Mr. Durrance did was wonderful but he was in danger. Tag numbers, descriptions etc are great. If you remember, several weeks ago several residents witnessed a sexual battery victim who was assisted by a citizen who gave us the information necessary to catch her perpetrator. Have a great week and please vote. | 