PHOENIX - A suspect killed by Phoenix police in a bank robbery attempt is thought to be the same man accused in the shooting death of a Mississippi police officer and the wounding of another, the FBI said Sunday.
The statement came after Phoenix police shot and killed a suspect after Saturday’s bank robbery attempt. Investigators believe the same suspect also tried to rob a bank in Atlanta on Monday, hours before he purportedly shot the two officers in Tupelo, Miss.
Phoenix police identified the suspect Sunday as Mario Edward Garnett. Police spokesman James Holmes said that it was unclear when Garnett arrived in the state.
Garnett, 40, was from the Midwest, had served for four years in the U.S. Army and appeared to have no friends or relatives in Arizona, Holmes said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.
“We have no connection of this young man here in the city of Phoenix or in Arizona,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Jackson, Miss., said that records showed the suspect’s cellphone was in Atlanta, Phoenix and Tupelo at the time of each crime.
The agent, Daniel McMullen, also told reporters in Tupelo that there were “numerous similarities” between the three bank robberies, including the clothing worn by the suspect, statements he made during the holdups and his “overall modus operandi.”
McMullen said the FBI thinks the suspect killed by Phoenix police was the same person from the Atlanta and Tupelo robberies.
Also on Sunday, the Secret Service said Garnett was arrested in 2010 after making online threats against the president.
Secret Service spokesman Max Millien said Garnett was living in Oklahoma City at the time of the arrest. Millien would not say how the case was resolved.
Surveillance photos from the attempted bank robbery in Atlanta showed a man wearing a black-and-white patterned jacket tried to rob a Bank of America branch around 9:30 a.m. on Monday. He was wearing a black ski mask and black gloves and carrying a handgun.
After failing to get any money from a teller, the man demanded and received an undisclosed amount of money from someone who was using an ATM in the bank’s lobby. The man was seen leaving in a light gray car with no license plate.
Later that same day, the robber stole an undisclosed amount of money from the Bancorp South in Tupelo before fleeing in a gray sedan, the FBI has said.
Officers Gale Stauffer and Joseph Maher were responding to a bank alarm and a report that the robber had fled in a white SUV when they spotted such a vehicle stalled in traffic. The officers were confronting the SUV’s driver when a gunman exited the gray sedan, which was stopped behind the SUV, and ambushed the officers, according to McMullen.
Stauffer died and was buried Friday after a funeral attended by as many as 1,000 people. Dozens of uniformed officers from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and elsewhere attended the service.
Stauffer’s wife, Beth, said her family was grateful for investigators’ work and for the support they’ve received.
“We can truly begin the healing process, and that could not have happened without the hard work of so very many,” she told reporters Sunday. “Gale would be so proud.”
Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that Maher’s condition has improved and he was able to walk some with assistance Friday. Maher moved out of the intensive care unit at North Mississippi Medical Center and into a private room.
The Phoenix shooting happened Saturday morning at a Compass Bank branch in the near-northwest part of the city after someone called 911 to report seeing a man run into the bank while wearing a mask.
There were five people inside the bank during the robbery, Holmes said. A customer who ran outside when Garnett turned his attention to the bank manager also called 911.
The first officer to arrive saw the man leave the bank with a bag and a handgun.
“The officer drew his service weapon and began giving the suspect commands at which time the suspect raised his weapon and began firing at the officer,” Holmes said in an earlier statement.
A detective who had just arrived at the scene shot the suspect, who was pronounced dead after being taken to a Phoenix hospital. No officers or bank employees were injured.
Holmes said Garnett drove a rental car to the Phoenix bank. It was unclear where Garnett had been and what he had been doing while in the state.
“We have no idea what he did between the 23rd of December and the 28th of December,” he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Kunzelman and Jackie Quinn of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 12/30/2013