Florida Police Chief’s Car Stolen, His Gun Used in Bank Robberies - FBI Investigates
By: Akilah Johnsen - SunSentinel.com
4/16/2004
Working in groups of three to five, a gun-wielding gag would storm into a bank and order everyone to the ground. At first, one of the masked men dressed in black would jump over the counter and swipe the money from teller drawers while his cohorts kept at bay.
It’s a scenario that repeated itself at least 11 times, mostly in Palm Beach Country, since October. Robberies on Wednesday in Tequesta and west of Port St. Lucie are the most recent, the FBI said Thursday.
At the helm of the robbery ring is Juan Bannister, a 21-year old West Palm man with a lengthy arrest record, officials said.
As the months went by officials said that the seven to eight member gang became more brazen, ditched the drawers and went for the vault. They also became more violent.
"In a couple of circumstances they have roughed up a couple of employees of the bank," FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said. "During one of the bank robberies, there was a weapon that was discharged."
No shots were fired and no one was hurt in either of Wednesday’s robberies.
Hours after Bannister’s gage robbed the First National Bank in Tequesta of $94, 674. and the Sun Trust Bank west of Port St. Lucie of $13,718, Bannister and four others were arrested, but he was the only one charged.
"Right now the evidence points to Juan Bannister… one of the main players," Orihuela said. She said there was not enough evidence to hold the others, three of whom are juveniles.
It was the group’s habit of using stolen cars that led to Bannister’s arrest, officials said.
A West Palm Beach police detective was at the Palm Grove Apartment complex, 2100 Australian Ave., about noon Wednesday when he saw four men dressed in dark clothes get out of a silver Dodge Caravan, the arrest report said. He checked the van’s tag and discovered it had been stolen from Boca Raton sometime between midnight and 8 a.m.
The getaway car from the Sun Trust heist was stolen from the same area around the same time, the arrest report further stated.
While officers waited for federal search warrants for the apartments, Bannister and another man walked out of one of them and "inquired of the officer about the police presence in the building," the arrest report continued. Inside the apartment, police found four loaded guns in a children’s bedroom closet. One of them was a Colt AR-15 assault rifle that belonged to Pahokee Police Chief Rafael Duran. The gun, which the FBI said was used in at least five robberies, was inside the chief’s police car when the vehicle was stolen in September from the Wal-Mart in Royal Palm Beach.
In the master bedroom, officials found an unloaded.22 caliber revolver and a shoebox full of AK-47 ammunition.
Dark clothes, gloves and masks were found in the other apartment, along with more than $5,000 the arrest report said. Two $100 "bait bills," which have prerecorded serial numbers, stolen from the Tequesta robbery, also were found.
News of Bannister’s arrest didn’t surprise some of his family members.
When Clarence Bannister heard that hers grandson had been arrested, she said, "Oh Lord, here we go again" from her doorstep on Thursday.
Juan Bannister has a long history of drug possession, robbery, resisting arrest, vehicle theft and aggravated assault, dating to 1999 when he was 16, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.