An Alabama federal grand jury Friday indicted an 18-year-old Birmingham man for robbery and hostage taking during a robbery of the Tuscaloosa branch of the $737 million Alabama Credit Union in January, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey said.
A three-count indictment was filed in U.S. District Court against Cedrick Lamar Collins.
One hostage-taking count alleged that Collins, while attempting to avoid apprehension for bank robbery, forced 11 credit union employees to accompany him without their consent.
The second hostage count charged that Collin’s took the 11 credit union employees hostage in order to compel a governmental organization not to take him into custody as an explicit condition for release of the hostages. In this case, the governmental organizations included the Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama police departments, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.
Police arrested Collins at the credit union without incident. Branch employees were released unharmed.
The maximum prison penalty for bank robbery is 20 years. The charge of taking a hostage while attempting to flee a bank robbery carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence. The charge of taking someone hostage to force a specific government action carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Alabama CU robbery and hostage incident occurred more than a month after an armed suspect took 13 hostages captive at a Jacksonville, Fla. branch of Community First Credit Union on December 1. In that case, the armed assailant allegedly entered the credit union with his dog shortly after the branch opened for business. After two hours, police tactical units stormed into the branch and rescued the hostages, taking the suspect into custody without incident. According to police, the suspect’s motive was robbery.
In addition, on Jan. 24, a brief hostage standoff occurred at the Fresno, Calif. branch of the $2.7 billion Educational Employees Credit Union where a man took a branch employee hostage while holding a large steak knife to her neck.
Anthony Flores, 32, was charged with attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, according to police. Flores released the credit union employee unharmed as he attempted to flee the scene.
