Charge Filed in Connection with Hyde Park Bank Robbery

CHICAGO—A man arrested shortly after the robbery of a Fifth Third Bank branch on Friday was charged today in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Robert D. Shaw, 54, of 527 East 51st Street, was charged with one count of bank robbery, a felony offense, in connection with the March 1, 2013 heist that occurred at the bank branch located at 1420 East 53rd Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The arrest and charge were announced today by Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent  in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

According to the complaint, Shaw approached a teller in the bank and requested to make a withdrawal of cash. When the teller asked Shaw to provide identification to complete the transaction, Shaw allegedly refused to provide the items requested by the teller and instead announced a robbery. The complaint further alleges that Shaw folded the money he obtained from the teller, placed it in a pocket of his jacket, and left the bank. He was arrested without incident in the 5200 block of Blackstone Avenue a short time later by Chicago Police Department officers based on the description of the robber provided in a dispatch message. Shaw was subsequently turned over to agents of the FBI.

Shaw appeared earlier today in U.S. District Court in Chicago before Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox, at which time he was formally charged. He remains in federal custody pending his next court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

If convicted of the charge filed against him, Shaw faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.