GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Grand Rapids Police Sergeant is recalling what led up to the chance encounter and arrest of a bank robbery suspect just minutes after adowntown heist on Tuesday.
It happened outside the Huntington bank just before 9:00 a.m.
Within minutes of the robbery itself, 24-year-old Durand Quentin Lee was arrested.
Sgt. Tom Warwick spoke to FOX 17 Thursday about the incident, saying he was just in the right place at the right time.
Sgt. Warwick said he was walking to the courthouse for a subpoena when he sensed Lee was acting suspicious.
“I saw the suspect take a movement towards his waistband,” Sgt. Warwick said. “We train to look at that and I wasn’t looking for it but when you come across that movement it’s unmistakable.”
After working the prior shift, Sgt. Warwick said he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he noticed Lee carrying a fist full of money.
“I noticed some other items in his hand and it looked like he was just trying to be evasive, and at that point I noticed that the other items in his hands was a big bundle of money,” said Sgt. Warwick.
He ordered the man to stop and get on the ground before finding Lee in possession of nearly $6,000 dollars and a B.B. gun pistol.
Nobody was hurt during this crime. Lee is facing federal charges which is standard in most bank robbery cases.
Sgt. Warwick said these are the types of situations he was trained for, saying he was only doing his job.
“I don’t know that brave[ry] comes into it, that shouldn’t be the word used,” said Sgt. Warwick. “I don’t think accidentally walking into it and quite frankly responding how I was supposed to, I don’t think that’s bravery. I think that’ a stroke of luck.”
