Boston Man Charged With Multiple Bank Robberies

BOSTON - A Boston man was charged yesterday with robbing two banks in Boston and Somerville.

Michael Tucker, 45, was indicted on two counts of unarmed bank robbery.

It is alleged that on Oct. 10, 2012, around 3:30 p.m., a man entered Citi Bank on Stuart Street in Boston, handed the teller a note and stated that he had a gun. The teller handed $2,396 to the man, who then fled the bank.

On Oct. 13, 2012, around 11:20 a.m., a man entered the Citizens Bank in Union Square, Somerville. While at the teller’s station the man shouted, “This is a robbery.” The man passed a note to the teller demanding money. After the teller then handed him $1,720 he fled the bank leaving the demand-note behind.

It appears to be the same man, whose image was captured on bank surveillance videos, that robbed both banks.

Following the robbery of the Citizens Bank and based on the images captured by both bank’s surveillance video system, the Somerville Police Department released a photograph of Tucker, as the suspect wanted in the robbery. On Oct. 15, 2012, the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force received a call from a Detective of the Westwood Police Department, who was conducting an unrelated investigation for a recent breaking and entry of a gas station, and suspected the man involved might be Tucker. The FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force then compared surveillance photos from each incident with Tucker’s RMV photograph concluding that it was the same individual. On Oct. 16, 2012, the FBI, acting on a tip, located and arrested Tucker in a motel in southern New Hampshire.

The maximum sentence under the statue is 20 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division; John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal of the U.S. Marshal’s Service; and Chief Paul T. Donovan of the Salem New Hampshire Police Department, made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth G. Shine of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.

The details contained in the Indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.