Five arrested after gunmen hold up LV bank

Jace Radke

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 10:09 a.m.

Five suspects in federal custody were expected to be charged today in connection with the noontime takeover robbery Tuesday of a northwest Las Vegas bank.

Five armed men wearing masks burst into the Nevada First Bank at 950 S. Rampart Blvd. and made off with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.

Metro Police homicide detective David Mesinar was at the intersection of Rampart and Charleston Boulevard when he heard that a robbery was in progress.

"I headed toward the bank and saw a man walking across one of the driveways of the shopping center where the bank is located," Mesinar said. "He was wearing gloves and carrying a pillow case. That was a clue. It looked like he missed his ride."

Mesinar followed the man to a McDonald's a few hundred feet south of the bank on Rampart. Patrol officers entered the restaurant and arrested the man as he was coming out of the bathroom.

Four other men were taken into custody and are being questioned in connection with the robbery, said Special Agent Daron W. Borst of the Las Vegas FBI office.

One employee at the bank was hit in the head with a gun during the robbery, but no one was seriously injured and no shots were fired, authorities said.

Takeover bank robberies are not as common as "note jobs," in which a person enters a bank and hands a note to a teller demanding money, Borst said.

"A takeover robbery means that there was probably more forethought and preparation on the part of the suspects," Borst said.

Takeover robberies are typically pulled off by a group of robbers who storm a bank, point guns at customers and employees and bark orders in an attempt to get cash.

Borst said the suspects, who were armed when they entered the bank, ordered the employees and customers to the floor. He did not know what kind of masks the men were wearing or what kinds of guns they had.

Tuesday's robbery was similar to an April 19 takeover robbery at a Bank of America branch in the 4200 block of South Rainbow Boulevard near Spring Valley Parkway.

In both robberies five men were involved. Borst said it's too early to tell if the two robberies are connected.