Alleged Bank Robber Arrested, Charged Following Fingerprint Analysis

A Dallas man has been arrested and charged with bank robbery, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah.

Michael Wilmer Wilson, 34, was arrested by the FBI at his residence in Dallas on Thursday morning, charged via criminal complaint with bank robbery. He is slated to make his initial appearance in federal court on Friday.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Wilson is allegedly connected to multiple recent bank robberies across north Texas. The incidents were repeatedly caught on surveillance camera. 

During a robbery at a bank in Dallas on Feb. 9, Mr. Wilson allegedly flashed a demand note that read, “This is a robbery. I have a gun.” After grabbing several thousand dollars from the frightened teller, he fled with the money and demand note -- but left a deposit slip on the counter.

Investigators lifted a latent fingerprint off of the slip. They ran the print through a police department database, but failed to turn up a match.

During another robbery at a bank in Ennis on April 29, the suspect allegedly displayed a handwritten demand note that read, “THIS IS A ROBBERY. 30K. DON’T BE A HERO.” He instructed the victim teller to place cash into a folder, then fled, on foot, towards a nearby grocery store.

Investigators collected surveillance video from the grocery store, which showed a silver Dodge Challenger pulling out of the parking lot approximately three minutes after the robbery. The footage later showed the vehicle crossing paths with a police department vehicle, which happened to record the car’s license plate on its dash cam. 

A search of the license plate number in the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles’ database revealed that the silver Dodge was registered to Mr. Wilson, whose driver’s license photo matched witnesses’ descriptions of the bank robbery suspect.

A forensic fingerprint examiner compared the latent print collected during the Feb. 9 robbery to prints collected by the Texas Department of Public Safety in March 2020 when Mr. Wilson applied for his license, and determined the prints were a match. 

A criminal complaint is merely an allegation of wrongdoing, not evidence. Like all defendants, Mr. Wilson is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Violent Crimes Taskforce conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department, the Ennis Police Department, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Briggs is prosecuting the case.