Troopers from the Michigan State Police have released a photo of the suspect in today's robbery of the Firstbank branch in Ashley.
A masked man, wearing a white and blue windbreaker, jumped over the counter and demanded that the tellers give him money. No weapon was used nor mentioned, said Michigan State Police Ithaca Post Commander Doug Wright.
The robber then ran out the back door and fled with an undetermined amount of cash about 10:15 a.m., he said. No getaway vehicle was seen.
Technicians from the Michigan State Police, a tracking dog from the Gratiot County Sheriff’s office and police spent much of the rest of the day investigating the robbery.
Once they learned of the robbery, Ashley school officials imposed a lockdown at the school buildings.
There are no reports of any injuries in the robbery of the Firstbank branch at 114 N. Sterling St., a storefront bank in a block of businesses in downtown Ashley.
The Firstbank branch in Ashley is one of 10 offices of Firstbank-Alma, a subsidiary of the Alma-based Firstbank Corp. of Michigan.
The Ashley robbery comes a little more than two months after the robbery of a Chemical Bank branch office in Mt. Pleasant. That robber was quickly arrested and pleaded guilty.