Police have arrested a second individual in connection with the Rockland Trust armed bank robbery, taking a New Hampshire resident into custody late Friday evening in Connecticut.
Omar Johnson, 39, of Canterbury, N.H. has been charged with masked armed robbery with a firearm and conspiracy to commit armed robbery with a firearm in connection with an armed bank robbery that occurred at the Rockland Trust branch in Vineyard Haven on Nov. 17.
The arrest occurred at 8:00 p.m. Friday after a car stop in New Haven, Conn., according to a statement from the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said that the state police, Tisbury police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Connecticut state police were all involved in the arrest.
Mr. Johnson is currently being held in Connecticut. Because he was arrested out of state, prosecutors will have to initiate an extradition process for him to appear in court in Edgartown. Mr. Johnson also has the option to waive the process.
Mr. Johnson is the first person to be charged with armed robbery in connection with the heist, which occurred early in the morning of Nov. 17 when three armed robbers wearing Halloween masks ambushed staff just before the Rockland Trust opened off the Vineyard Haven-Edgartown Road.
The robbers bound bank personnel with duct tape and plastic ties before leaving with an undisclosed amount of money in a vehicle stolen from one of the tellers, according to police.
A second individual, Miquel Jones, 30, of Edgartown, was arrested late last week after police said he drove a getaway vehicle used by the robbers. He was arraigned on Monday on one count of being an accessory to an armed robbery. He is currently being held in the Edgartown jail on $300,000 bail.
The robbery spurred a dramatic police manhunt that stretched across the Vineyard Sound to Cape Cod, as Island police departments, the state police and a special division of the FBI all followed leads for the robbers. Nothing turned up until last weekend, when police said they were able to use surveillance video and witnesses to track down Mr. Jones.
Mr. Jones, a Jamaican citizen who gave an Edgartown address, was arrested on Island after a traffic stop, according to the district attorney’s office. Police said that they found black clothing, duct tape and three, $100 bills in his vehicle, two of which had sequential serial numbers. Mr. Jones admitted to his vehicle being parked near where the robbers dropped off the stolen car soon after the bank hold-up, a prosecutor said during his arraignment Monday.
District attorney spokesman Tara Miltimore said in the statement Saturday that Tisbury police, state police and the FBI are continuing to investigate the incident.
