BRADENTON — Bradenton Police Department on Friday arrested a 38-year-old man in connection with two bank robberies on Manatee Avenue West.
Christopher Boston, 38, is charged with robbery in connection to the April 14 heist at First Bank America, 2811 Manatee Ave. W., and the May 5 theft at Superior Bank, 2207 Manatee Ave. W., according to detectives.
Both banks were robbed by a man described as wearing a blue sweatshirt, shorts and a baseball cap who passed a note to a teller, according to authorities.
A second man, Garrett Lunsford, 22, was also arrested in connection to one of the robberies for allegedly aiding Boston. He is facing a charge of principal to and assisting a robbery, according to police.
Both suspects were being held late Friday at the Manatee County jail.
Mother charged with neglect after child shoplifts
PALMETTO — A Palmetto woman has been arrested on a child neglect charge after a Wal-Mart security guard caught her 9-year-old son shoplifting.
A Palmetto police report said Christine Colon, 30, could not be located after officers responded to the shoplifting call at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in the 500 block of 10th Street East. The boy told officers his mother had dropped him off at a friend’s house earlier in the day.
Colon said she would pick him up, but the boy left when told he had to leave his friend’s house. Police reports say the boy then walked across a busy street and went into the Wal-Mart.
The boy had no contact information for his mother and she could not be located, so child protection services took custody of the child, according to the report.
“It is believed without law enforcement’s intervention, the juvenile would still be wandering around,” the police report stated.
Man accused of robbery with beer bottle
MANATEE — A 29-year-old man is accused of attempting to rob a man after he knocked him off his bike, demanded money and cut him with a beer bottle, according to a Bradenton Police Department arrest report.
Freddie Lee J. Saffor allegedly ran from the man who swung his fists at him in the 1900 block of Seventh Street West early Thursday morning.
The man told police he chased Saffor through yards. Saffor picked up a brick and threw it at the man and missed. The man threw a brick back and missed. Saffor allegedly broke a beer bottle on the man. He then started to cut the man on the arm, face and neck.Saffor is charged with robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. On Friday night, he remained in jail on a $500,000 bond, according to the Manatee County jail Web site.
Tampa fugitive bitten by K-9 after running from police
MANATEE — A wanted Tampa man who ran from deputies had to be hospitalized with a dog bite to the buttocks after a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office K-9 caught him, according to a sheriff’s report.
Lamar Duane Fields, 28, was arrested late Thursday after he ran from Manatee deputies in the 2500 block of Third Avenue East in Palmetto.
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