NYPD: Special team nabs bank robbery suspect exiting subway
A combination of technology and quick thinking by a couple of cops led to the arrest Friday of a suspect in a $41,000 bank robbery in Manhattan about an hour after the incident, officials said.
The suspect, Duane Moore, 58, was arrested by two Strategic Response Group officers about 11:28 a.m. after he left a subway station near 116th Street and Park Avenue on the IRT line, investigators said.
Moore was suspected of having robbed a branch of the M&T Bank at 1034 Second Ave., officials said. But the cash the suspect had taken apparently contained a tracking device, which allowed police at the NYPD Real Time Crime Center to follow his movements into an IRT subway station entrance at 60th Street and Lexington Avenue, according to police officials.
Assuming that Moore would exit one of the stations servicing the northbound No. 4, 5 or 6 lines, SRG commanders stationed officers at the stops and radioed them a description of Moore, police said. It was at 116th Street that Moore ran into Sgt. Andrew Lane and Officer Timothy House of the SRG unit, both of whom thought he matched the description of the robbery suspect, police said.
“He looked at us, we looked at him and we knew it was him and after a short pursuit we were able to apprehend him,” Lane told reporters Friday, adding the suspect had a loaded .45-caliber handgun when he was arrested.
Moore, whose residence wasn’t disclosed, is being charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
Deputy Insp. Joseph Kersting of the Major Case Unit said Moore is believed to have carried out three earlier bank robberies, which, combined with Friday’s case, netted about $60,000.
NYPD officials declined to give details about the device that tracked Moore’s movements after the 10:20 a.m. robbery.
As SRG officers, Lane and House are part of a special unit that can be mobilized quickly to handle civil disturbances and special situations.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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