Police seek suspect in Hopwood robbery
State police are looking for a man who robbed the National City bank on Route 40 in Hopwood at gunpoint Wednesday morning and fled with an undisclosed amount of money. There were no customers at the time of the holdup and no one was injured.
Police made a composite sketch of the suspect from the bank’s surveillance camera photos.
He is described as a black man in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches tall, with a medium build, dark hair and dark eyes.
The suspect was not wearing a mask and was clean-shaven, police said.
He entered the bank, brandished a handgun and demanded money. A teller handed over money and the suspect fled, police said.
Trooper James Pierce said the gun had a red tip or sight. Investigators aren’t sure if it was a real gun.
The robber was wearing a dark blue sweatshirt and dark blue work pants, and fled in a newer model four-door, dark-colored Chevrolet Blazer or another type of sport utility vehicle, police said.
Pierce said the suspect parked the SUV along the side of the bank on Furnace Road and fled south on Furnace Road after the 9:25 a.m. robbery.
The suspect was in the bank briefly.
“It didn’t take him long,” Pierce said.
Trooper Timothy Knapp, the investigating officer, said that about an hour after the robbery, a truck driver reported seeing a black man running across Route 43, a section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, in Georges Township.
That report touched off a search involving numerous troopers and a state police helicopter in the area around Big Six Road and Church Street outside of Fairchance. Most of the officers left the area by 2 p.m.
No arrest has been made.
“They gave it a good effort down there,” Knapp said, noting that police have no leads in the case.
He said a person running across Route 43 was unusual and suspicious enough to warrant the search.
Agents from the FBI’s Mon Valley office are assisting in the investigation.
Police ask anyone with information about the suspect to call Knapp at 724-415-1205.