A robbery suspect -- nicknamed Surfer Boy for the bleached hairdo and fake tan described by his victims -- surrendered to police yesterday after barricading himself in the closet of an East Baltimore apartment, several hours after allegedly holding up a Baltimore County bank.
The suspect, 25-year-old Shawn Thomas McDonnell, was found after city police spotted a parked blue pickup truck similar to one used in the county robbery and were led to the apartment in the 1400 block of Anglesea St.
Mr. McDonnell was charged with robbing a bank in Towson on Tuesday and had been sought by Anne Arundel County police on charges of robbery and assault with intent to murder in the beating of a 62-year-old employee of a TCBY yogurt store in Crofton Sunday morning.
FBI spokesman Andrew D. Manning said Mr. McDonnell had recently moved from the city to the 1700 block of Greentree Court in Crofton.
Yesterday's robbery occurred just after 9 a.m. at the Maryland National Bank branch in the 9100 block of Reisterstown Road near McDonogh Road.
Baltimore County police said a man handed a teller a note reading: "20s, 10s, 5s. No dye pack. I have a gun."
The robber, who did not display a gun, carried an alligator briefcase and left in a blue truck with a white cap on its bed.
In Tuesday's robbery, police said, the same man entered the First Virginia Bank of Central Maryland, in the 1300 block of E. Joppa Road, just after 9 a.m. and handed a teller a similarly worded note, leaving with $1,600.
He was described as white, 25 to 35 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall and heavily built, with his hair bleached blond on top, and dark brown and shaved close below, and a complexion that appeared to be from an artificial tanning lotion -- leading some to nickname him Surfer Boy.
About 3 p.m. yesterday, the pickup truck was spotted in the 1400 block of Anglesea St., and area residents led officers and FBI agents to the apartment where the suspect briefly barricaded himself, alone, in a closet before surrendering.
In the Anne Arundel robbery, police said 62-year-old Donna Lou Wiley was beaten in the face with a blunt object. She told police that a man she knew entered to use the telephone at the yogurt store, in the 2200 block of Defense Highway, about 10 a.m. Sunday and, after striking her, took cash from the store and fled.
Baltimore
Meanwhile, FBI agents said they were still searching for a suspect in a city bank robbery yesterday on Linden Avenue -- a man also believed responsible for two robberies at the same bank on Park Heights Avenue in the last seven days.
The robber -- "caught" on a bank video surveillance tape during the 10:40 a.m. Signet Bank holdup in the 2000 block of Linden -- was described as a black man with a dark complexion, in his early 30s, 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall with a medium build. He displayed no weapon, but indicated in each robbery that he had a gun.
He also was suspected of robbing the Harbor Bank in the 5000 block of Park Heights Ave. last Friday and again on Tuesday, the FBI said.