A 61-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, June 4, after investigators connected him to three bank robberies that day within an hour in Temecula and Murrieta, authorities said.
On Tuesday, at approximately 11:50 a.m., deputies responded to a panic alarm at a bank at 40400 Margarita Road in Temecula, a sheriff’s news release said.
Bank employees reported that a man wearing a blue shirt and a baseball cap and carrying an orange bag robbed the bank by passing a note to the teller demanding money. The teller handed an undisclosed amount to the suspect, who fled before deputies arrived.
The Sheriff’s Department would not say Thursday which bank was robbed.
“We do not release business names,” said Sgt. Deirdre Vickers, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
Deputies later learned about two other bank robberies, in Murrieta. The same method was used and the suspect description was the same.
Those robberies were reported at about 12:20 p.m. at the Chase Bank at 40655 California Oaks Road and at 12:58 p.m. at the U.S. Bank inside the Stater Bros. market at 25050 Hancock Ave., said Sgt. Miguel Garcia, a Murrieta Police Department spokesman.
Police said that at Chase the suspect showed a firearm in his waistband. The second Murrieta heist was also described as an armed robbery.
That day, Murrieta police spotted the suspect’s car and pulled in behind it as it entered the driveway of his home in the 35000 block of Crickhowell Avenue in Murrieta, Garcia said.
Sonny Tho Leu was arrested.
Police found a BB gun in Leu’s car, Garcia said. They found other evidence as well, the sheriff’s statement said. Leu was booked into the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center on suspicion of robbery and terrorist threats. He was being held without bail on Thursday.
Leu confessed to the robberies, the Murrieta news release said.
“He said he needed the money,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that police had no previous contact with Leu.
The Sheriff’s Department asked anyone with information about the robberies to call Sgt. J. Hephner at 951-304–5087.
On April 20, Anaheim police arrested Leu on suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm, Anaheim Sgt. Jon McClintock said.
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