Same bank, same suspect, almost the same crime. The Olds Albertan has learned that the man arrested and charged in connection to an armed robbery at the TD Canada Trust bank on Jan. 24 is the same person charged with robbing the same bank in June .
Same bank, same suspect, almost the same crime.
The Olds Albertan has learned that the man arrested and charged in connection to an armed robbery at the TD Canada Trust bank on Jan. 24 is the same person charged with robbing the same bank in June.
Rory Alan Jackson, 46, who police said now has an Innisfail address, was arrested just hours after a man wearing a mask and brandishing a handgun allegedly entered the bank on 50 Avenue just before 5:30 p.m., demanded money and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
He is charged with robbery with a pistol, using a mask while committing an indictable offence, breaching a court-ordered condition of not attending the TD Canada Trust bank in Olds, breaching a court-ordered condition that he is not to possess weapons and breaching a court-ordered condition that he was to surrender all firearms and explosives to police.
Jackson is still dealing with a charge of robbing the TD Canada Trust on June 4.
He was arrested at the home where he was living in Olds on June 12 and his next court appearance for the charges relating to the June 4 robbery is scheduled for Feb. 24.
Cpl. Shawn Morgan of the Olds RCMP said no bank staff were injured during the Jan. 24 robbery and no verbal threats were made during the crime.
He added the suspect had left the bank on foot heading west carrying a bag containing the stolen cash. Police from Olds, Sundre and Didsbury scoured the community for several hours following the robbery and a police canine unit from Red Deer was involved in the search for the suspect.
Morgan said the suspect at one point changed his clothes and removed his disguise near a building west of the bank as he fled and police looked over that area for evidence.
Police arrested Jackson in Innisfail as he was returning to his residence at about 10:15 p.m.
Staff Sgt. Joe Sangster, commander of the Olds RCMP detachment, said police went looking for Jackson as the suspect descriptions provided by witnesses matched Jackson's appearance.
Just after the robbery, a trio of witnesses who saw the suspect leave the bank told the Albertan they had followed the man until they learned he had a handgun.
Mykola Sulym said he and his friend Ihor Kripak were in a car outside the bank when they noticed a man in the bank's north parking lot dressed all in black and carrying a bag.
The man was putting on gloves and was facing away from Sulym so he could not tell if he was wearing a mask at that point.
The man entered the bank at about 5:20 p.m. and then re-emerged in "less than a minute" and removed his mask while fleeing across the street toward an alley between Nutter's Bulk and Natural Food and Sawatzky's Auto Repair just south of 48 Street.
Sulym and Kripak started to follow the man and caught the attention of Erik Olsen who was talking with the owners of Sawatzky's.
While Sulym and Kripak walked down the alley on foot, Olsen, who was on his bicycle, headed west on 49 Street.
Olsen said he saw the suspect walking west before he ducked into a space between two fourplexes on 48 Street and changed his clothes.
The trio of witnesses waited for the suspect and when he came back out into the open, he spoke to the threesome.
"We were looking right at him and he said 'What?' And I said nothing. And then he kept walking but we got a good look at him," Olsen said.
The man continued west towards an apartment complex at the corner of 51 Avenue and 48 Street and then went down an alley behind the apartments. Kripak said although he and Sulym had initially chased the suspect, he decided to stop and call 911.
He also returned to the bank to see if bank staff had called police and staff members told him the suspect was armed.
"When I went there they told me that I should warn my friend not to chase the guy because he had a gun," he said.
Olsen continued to try to track the suspect and eventually ended up at the Olds Legion off of Highway 27 where he saw a parked taxi.
He said he warned the taxi's driver about the suspect in case he called a cab to escape.
Sulym said the suspect seemed "drunk" or having difficulty walking as he was fleeing the bank and Olsen added the man had slipped on ice while crossing the road.
"And then he got up and he looked right back at us and he said 'Ice.' And then he walked across the street pretty nonchalantly," Olsen said.
Jackson appeared in Didsbury court on Jan. 27 for a bail hearing in relation to the Jan. 24 robbery and the matter was put over to Jan. 29.
He was also answering to six fraud charges stemming from incidents that took place in Sundre during the time period of July 11 to 13, 2013.
None of the charges against Jackson have been proven in court.
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