UPDATE: Police release picture of bank robbery suspect, ask for public’s help in finding him
UPDATE 4:16 pm: Police are still searching for the suspect of the Central Bank robbery on Nifong this morning.
Central Bank reopened for business at 3:30 p.m.
ABC 17 spoke to a Central Bank employee, Mary Wilkerson, who says it was a quiet robbery and luckily no one is hurt.
“I guess the best way to describe it is a quiet robbery. The robber came in, passed a note and left. Other than the teller, probably no one even knew it was happening,” said Wilkerson.
Wilkerson says she believes the man was alone, but it is always difficult to tell.
She says it was a silent robbery, and no matter what they still hand over the money for everyone else’s safety.
“If someone comes up and passes you a note that says literally this is a robbery, you don’t know if they have a weapon or not. So you have to behave if they are threatening,” said Wilkerson.
UPDATE 11:30 am: Police said their investigation revealed that a man entered the bank, approached a teller and demanded money before running from the area on foot.
Officers said the suspect was given an undisclosed amount of money.
Police ask anyone with information on the suspect or the incident to call the Columbia Police Department at (573) 874-7652 or CrimeStoppers at (573) 875-TIPS.
UPDATE 11:20 am: A spokesperson for Columbia Public Schools confirmed that several schools were placed on modified lockdown due to the incident just before 10 a.m. The lockdown last approximately 15 minutes.
The schools that were placed on lockdown were Gentry, Rock Bridge High School, Columbia Area Career Center and the Center for Responsive Education (CORE). School is proceeding as normal and students are safe.
UPDATE 11:10 am: A spokesperson for Central Bank said all employees are safe and accounted for.
UPDATE 10:45 am: Columbia police tweeted a picture of the suspect and asked the community to help find him.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/989893371626950656″,”author_name”:”ColumbiaPD”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Have you seen this man? An hour ago he robbed Central Bank of Boone Co. on Nifong. Call CPD immediately if you see or know him. *Please RT* &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/MCpXtytK2I”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/MCpXtytK2I&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– ColumbiaPD (@ColumbiaPD) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/ColumbiaPD/status/989893371626950656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 27, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
ORIGINAL STORY: Columbia police confirmed on Friday morning that they are investigating a robbery at Central Bank on Nifong Boulevard.
Officers said they are pulling surveillance video at a Hy-Vee in the area and are actively looking for a suspect.
ABC 17 crews are on scene and see multiple officers.
Stay with this story for the latest information.
