Chattanooga police are working to link the suspect in a March 20 armed robbery at a downtown bank to a man who was killed after robbing a bank in another state, police said.
“It is quite possible that that person has shown up in another bank robbery in another state and has been identified,” Executive Chief Harry Sommers said during a media briefing Wednesday. “We are working forensically right now to show, to try to prove that connection, that it is the same person.”
(READ MORE: Police search for man in armed robbery at downtown Chattanooga bank)
The suspect may be the same as a man killed in Oklahoma after a shootout with law enforcement, Assistant Chief Jerri Sutton said in an email.
That man was killed after reportedly robbing a bank in Kansas four days after the Chattanooga robbery, according to news reports.
The department is waiting on DNA testing to confirm the connection, according to Sutton.
“This is speculation based on method of operation,” Sutton said. “We will not know who our suspect is until we get DNA results back, and I do not have a timeline of when that will be.”
Sommers said Wednesday the department believes it will be able to make the connection between the two robberies, eventually closing the Chattanooga case.
After the robbery, police described the suspect as a white or light-skinned man. He was wearing all black clothing and a face covering during the robbery, surveillance footage from the bank shows.
(READ MORE: VIDEO: Police still searching for man in armed robbery at downtown Chattanooga bank)
Footage shows the suspect entering the Market Street bank with a gun and shooting warning shots while standing on the counter. The suspect took an undisclosed amount of money from the bank, video shows, which an employee put in a bag.
According to news reports, the man killed in Oklahoma got out of his car and shot at Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers before troopers shot and killed him. He first led troopers on a chase after they identified his car based on reports of the bank robbery in Wellington, Kansas, earlier that day, local media reported.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol later identified the man as Rosendo Rivero, 25, a Black man who also faced charges in Florida for allegedly shooting a woman in Miami-Dade County.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.