Pima County sheriff’s deputies say a man held up a bag in a northwest-side bank Thursday afternoon, claiming it had explosives, before robbing the bank and leaving the bag inside.
Then he walked toward a store at nearby Foothills Mall where deputies spotted him and he held up a second bag telling them it had explosives as well, said Deputy Cody Gress, a sheriff’s department spokesman. Gress gave the following account:
While deputies approached the man and tried to talk to him, he threw the bag toward the mall’s Buy Buy Baby store and then got down on the ground.
Deputies closed off the area and evacuated Buy Buy Baby at 7475 N. La Cholla Boulevard in the mall, and BBVA Compass Bank at 7645 N. La Cholla. The Pima Regional Bomb Squad determined one bag contained a hoax device and the other was empty.
David Allen Markillie, 66, was detained and booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of six counts of aggravated assault, and one count of armed robbery.
