Woonsocket Resident Sentenced for Robbing Two Banks

PROVIDENCE – Edred Buchanan, 40, of Woonsocket, was sentenced today to 48 months in federal prison for committing two bank robberies a week apart in November 2015.

At sentencing, U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith also ordered Buchanan to serve 3 years supervised release upon completion of his prison term and to pay restitution to the banks totaling $2,561. The government recommended a sentence of 70 months imprisonment, the low end of the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range in this matter.

Buchanan pleaded guilty on March 8, 2017, to two counts of bank robbery.

Buchanan’s sentence is announced by Acting United States Attorney Stephen G. Dambruch; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division; Providence Police Chief Colonel Hugh T. Clements, Jr.; and Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas Oates.

At the time of his guilty plea, Buchanan admitted to the court that on November 5, 2015, he entered the Citizens Bank branch on Waterman Street in Providence and passed a note to a teller demanding money in $50 and $100 denominations. He left with $1,011 in cash and the note.

Additionally, Buchanan admitted that on November 12, 2015, he entered the Citizens Bank branch on Westminster Street and passed a note to a teller which read, “Robbery! Gun! Loose 50s N’100s. No Dye Packs! Quick!” He left with $1,550 in cash but without the note.

According to court documents, on November 9, 2015, Woonsocket police, who were assisting Blackstone, MA, Police investigate a bank robbery that occurred on that date in Blackstone, advised an FBI agent regarding information they had developed and evidence they had seized regarding the Blackstone bank robbery. The information and evidence they seized, and follow-up investigation by the FBI and Providence Police, eventually led the FBI and Providence Police to identify Edred Buchanan as the person responsible for the Providence bank robberies. Buchanan was arrested on March 30, 2016.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald R. Gendron.

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