Buffalo Man Sentenced For His Role In Two Credit Union Robberies In Lackawanna And Clarence

BUFFALO, N.Y.- U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Myron McCollum, 35, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of aggravated bank robbery, was sentenced to serve 170 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution totaling $439,293.90, by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua A. Violanti and Nicholas T. Cooper, who handled the case, stated that on July 25, 2019, McCollum and co-defendant Ronald Morris entered the South Towns Community Federal Credit Union on South Park Avenue in Lackawanna wearing dark colored clothing and face masks and conducted a bank robbery with pepper spray and a pistol. McCollum and Morris traversed the teller’s counter, sprayed the tellers with pepper spray, and went to the unlocked safe, forcibly taking $290,500 in United States currency.             

On November 7, 2019, McCollum, Morris, and co-defendant Carl Wilson, armed with a pistol and donning masks and gloves, entered the Clarence Community and School Federal Credit Union on Sheridan Drive in Clarence, and conducted a bank robbery while Applewhite, the getaway driver, sat in a car nearby. McCollum and his accomplices ordered all the employees to the ground and demanded money. McCollum and Wilson went behind the teller line and went through teller’s drawers, while Morris went to the vault. They forcibly took $148,793.90 in United States currency. 

Defendant Carl Wilson was previously convicted and sentenced to serve 72 months in prison. Defendant Ronald Morris and another co-defendant, Adrian Applewhite, were also previously convicted and are awaiting sentencing.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Eugene Staniszewski; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia; and the Lackawanna Police Department, under the direction of Chief Mark Packard.

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