A suspect in a bank robbery in Powell on October 20, 2015, was arrested just a few hours later in the eastbound lanes of North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard at Interstate 75. The suspect was stopped by the Clinton Police Department with help from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department. (Photo by Lisa Kincaid)
An alert sent to local law enforcement combined with a traffic stop in Clinton led to the arrest of a suspect in a Powell bank robbery in October, federal officials said.
Christopher Michael Miller, 36, is accused of a bank robbery at Home Federal Bank at 105 East Emory Road in Powell on Tuesday afternoon, October 20.
He was arrested just a few hours later on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard at Interstate 75 in Clinton.
A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville alleged Miller entered the Home Federal Bank at about 1:38 p.m. that Tuesday, approached a teller, and passed a handwritten note that read: “I Have 2 Guns! I need all the 50’s, 100’s out of your drawer! No FAKE Blue Bills. NOW!”
The teller complied with the demand for money and provided an undisclosed amount of cash to Miller, the complaint said.
“Miller then left the bank and was observed by bank employees entering a silver-colored Infiniti with four doors,” the complaint said.
Surveillance photographs from the robbery and the description of the robber’s getaway vehicle were provided to local officers.
Authorities in Anderson County received the alert. The suspect reportedly turned onto Heiskell Road, which runs from Knox County into Anderson County, and officers and deputies began looking for the suspect vehicle.
About one hour after the robbery, at roughly 2:40 p.m., Clinton Police Department Lieutenant Larry Miller spotted the suspect vehicle, an Infiniti with a Pennsylvania license plate, on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard near Buffalo Road, the criminal complaint said.
On Tuesday, Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough said Lieutenant Miller contacted Officer Max Smith when he first spotted the suspect’s car at Sinking Springs Road and made a traffic stop when Smith arrived as backup. The car was pulled over in the eastbound lanes of North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard near the I-75 on-ramp, Scarbrough said.
An Anderson County Sheriff’s Department school resource officer came to help.
“Everything went really well,” Scarbrough said.
Miller had stayed in his zone and stayed alert, and the suspect’s vehicle came through his zone, Scarbrough said.
Besides the CPD, other officers responded after the traffic stop, including from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The criminal complaint, filed by FBI Special Agent David M. Bukowski, said Christopher Miller’s appearance matched the person depicted in the surveillance photographs from the Home Federal Bank robbery.
“Miller gave verbal and written consent for law enforcement to search his vehicle, and upon doing so, law enforcement recovered most of the money taken during the Home Federal Bank robbery, as well as the shirt and ball cap worn by the robber during the robbery,” the complaint said.
Miller was arrested by the CPD and FBI and taken to the FBI’s Knoxville office for an interview. He waived his Miranda rights, according to the complaint, and confessed to the robbery in a recorded interview.
Miller has been indicted on one federal count of using force, violence, and intimidation to take “and cause to be taken from the person and presence of another, money, belonging to, and in the care, custody, control, management, and possession of” the Home Federal Bank. The deposits were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the indictment said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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