By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Police are still searching for the man who robbed the Nassau Street branch of the Santander Bank last week.
The man walked into the bank at 188 Nassau Street and handed the teller a note, demanding cash, shortly before 4:30 p.m. Oct. 26, police said. The teller gave him money and he walked out of the bank toward Park Place.
He was described as a black male, about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a green baseball cap and a green hoodie, and faded jeans.
Last week’s bank robbery occurred almost 20 years to the day of another bank robbery, which turned deadly, at the same location at 188 Nassau Street at the then-Sovereign Bank.
In the earlier incident, which occurred Nov. 6, 1997, one of the bank robbers was killed by police as he attempted to use a hostage to shield himself, according to published reports.
Two gunmen hid inside the bank after it closed at 4 p.m., before seizing two bank tellers as they finished their work about two hours later. An employee who was servicing the ATM saw a teller standing alone in the first floor lobby with her wrists bound, and called police.
Three Princeton police officers responded and found the lobby was lighted, but empty. They entered the lobby. When the elevator door opened, they saw a man – later identified as Angel Rivera – crouched down and holding a woman. He had one arm around her throat and a handgun pointed at her head.
The officers pulled out their guns and tried to talk him into surrendering. But the man pointed his gun at police and then back at the woman, and he started to count. The hostage jerked down, and the three officers shot and killed him.
A second gunman and an accomplice fled the scene in a getaway car. The men – gunman Sandy Casiano and former bank teller Harold Davila – were subsequently arrested and charged, according to published reports.
