Arrest made, charges laid in trio of bank robberies and one bomb threat call
By Medicine Hat News on April 5, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell A Medicine Hat man arrested on April 2 following an armed robbery of a local bank has now been charged in relation to two other bank robberies and a bomb threat to another bank. Ronald Big Bull appeared before court from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre Thursday, with his lawyer requesting an adjournment until April 18 for a bail hearing. The 31-year-old Hatter was arrested following an April 2 incident where at 5:30p.m., a male suspect entered the TD Canada Trust bank on Strachan Road SE, produced a handgun and demanded cash. “We don’t want anyone to put themselves in danger or harms way,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Holt with the Medicine Hat Police Service’s major crimes unit, but said that a “huge factor” in making the arrest were civilian witnesses, including one person who grabbed a photo of the suspect’s vehicle. “That was the starting point,” said Holt, as this led police to Big Bull – and linked him to to bank robberies at a CIBC bank on March 19, and an ATB bank on November 9, 2017, and calling in a bomb threat to a Servus Credit Union on October 31, 2017. While investigations into these incidents were ongoing, Holt said that there was “nothing concrete” that pointed to a suspect. “There’s just so little to recognize physically,” he said about evidence like footage of the suspect. With this week’s arrest, Holt said police were able to link up some physical evidence from previous robberies to him, and the accused provided a statement. Holt said the accused’s motivation appears to be “desperation and poor decisions” and nothing to indicate it was to feed a drug habit. Big Bull is charged with robbery with a firearm (or imitation), an additional two counts of robbery, three counts of wearing a disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence, and one count of utter threats. 13-12
