NORTH ADAMS — A
suspected explosive device was carted away by a state police bomb squad last
night, hours after being left on the street by a man who used it — and an air
pistol — to rob a Main Street bank. Downtown North Adams was evacuated for more
than five hours last night after the man was apprehended by police moments after
the robbery. The area was expected to be reopened to residents around midnight,
police said.
It was unclear whether the device contained explosives and was armed. A
Massachusetts State Police bomb disposal unit was summoned from the Boston area
and arrived at about 10:30 p.m. The device was removed about 11 p.m. by police,
who planned to take it to a remote area and attempt to detonate it.
Robert Albert Bywaters, 55, of Schenectady, N.Y., allegedly walked into the
Hoosac Bank at 93 Main St. at about 3:40 p.m. armed with what police said
appeared to be an automatic pistol and carrying what they suspected was a pound
of TNT. He left with between $20,000 and $40,000, police said.
According to Stephen Crowe, president and CEO of MountainOne Financial Partners,
the parent company of Hoosac Bank, the suspect demanded money from a loan
officer and a teller; they gave him an undetermined amount of cash. As he was
leaving, police were running through the bank from the back door. They caught up
to him about 40 feet from the Main Street entrance. Crowe said "six or seven"
officers knocked Bywaters off his feet and apprehended him.
According to Mayor John Barrett III, Public Safety Commissioner E. John Morocco
was among the officers who subdued the suspect. Shortly thereafter, police
determined that the bag the suspect had been carrying could be a bomb and left
it lying on the sidewalk two doors west of the bank entrance. A robot was
brought in to investigate the package.
After remote examination, investigators suspected the package contained roughly
a pound of TNT, Morocco said. At approximately 5:30 p.m., public safety workers
began evacuating more than a dozen buildings on Main Street — from American
Legion Drive to Ashland Street. The displaced residents were offered shelter at
the nearby First Baptist Church, where about 18 waited last night for the
all-clear signal. Others made alternative arrangements to wait out the
emergency, and it was not clear how many residents had been evacuated.
Crowe said that at the time of the robbery, there were 25 to 30 employees in the
bank, which occupies all four floors of the building. Morocco said that during
the robbery, there were more than 10 employees and fewer than five customers in
the bank's lobby. During the robbery, employees phoned the police and tripped a
silent alarm, Crowe said. Morocco said no guns were fired and there were no
injuries.
Mayor John Barrett III praised the efforts of the police, Fire Department and
ambulance service. "I can't say enough about the good work they did out
there today," he said. "We still have a perfect record — no one has successfully
robbed a bank in North Adams." With the suspect still in the bank, one of the
employees called Crowe in his office upstairs and told him there was something
suspicious happening in the lobby. Crowe got there just as the suspect was
walking out the front door. "I passed by him just as he was leaving,"
Crowe said. Police officers rushed by Crowe to apprehend the suspect, he added.
More than 100 people gathered in the parking lot near Staples to watch the scene
unfold. One spectator, who declined to be identified, said her daughter is an
employee at the bank and left work just before the building was locked down.
"Now she's wondering what's going on, whether all her coworkers are OK," she
said. Bywaters was being held pending arraignment Tuesday on charges of assault
with intent to murder, possession of an incendiary device and kidnapping, police
said.
In addition to the evacuation of Main Street, a blue van with New York plates in
the parking lot of Big Y — one block north of the bank — was identified as the
suspect's vehicle. It was cordoned off by police with a 100 foot perimeter,
Morocco said, until it could be cleared by investigators.