LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 1, 1999

LAPLACE – St. John Parish detectives and FBI investigators are stillsearching for the man who robbed the Hibernia Bank Main Street branch Wednesday morning.

At 10:10 a.m., the sheriff’s office was notified of the robbery. Deputiesand K-9 squads arrived in moments and commenced a search for several blocks around.

Capt. Michael Tregre reported that a witness spotted the robber putting ona mask prior to his entering the bank. The robber was described as 6 feettall, medium build and a dark-complexioned black male, wearing blue jeans, a homemade mask which completely obscured his face, a heavy, long-sleeved sweater or sweatshirt and white gloves in the 90-plus degree morning.

Tregre said the robber produced a small, dark-colored handgun, demanded money, which he placed in a plastic grocery bag, and fled on foot behind the bank toward the United Steelworkers Union hall on West Fifth Street.

There, despite an intensive, almost immediate search, the trail apparently ended. Investigators combed a nearby drainage ditch overgrown byvegetation and area businesses, but did not discover any trace of the robber’s escape.

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