Kearny police arrested a 28-year-old Newark man today who they suspect robbed the Schuyler Savings Bank on two occasions after his car overturned as it it exited Route 21 onto Route 3 with police followed him this morning.
JERSEY CITY -- A 28-year-old Newark man who police suspect of robbing the Schuyler Savings Bank twice in the past month was arrested yesterday after his car overturned trying to flee police.
Kearny police are investigating James Lockwood for the Aug. 25 and Sept. 8 robberies of the Davis Avenue bank, Kearny Police Capt. Scott MacFie said, but he has not been charged in those incidents.
However, Lockwood was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, eluding police and a weapons offenses related to using the car as a weapon against the officer, stemming from a chase after the second bank robbery.
At about 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 8 a man entered the bank and passed the teller a note demanding money. He then took the note back and fled with a bag containing an undisclosed amount of cash.
A short time later, a Kearny police officer spotted a man in a vehicle matching the description of the bank robber and saw the driver hiding something, MacFie said at the time.
The driver, who police say is Lockwood, hit the gas and dragged the officer a short distance. Police chased the vehicle onto Route 280, but lost sight of it as it headed west. Investigators were fairly certain the driver was the same person who robbed the bank.
Working on the premise that the bank robber usually strikes on Thursdays and Fridays, Kearny police officers on the Kearny border in Newark spotted the vehicle on Route 21 this morning and followed it.
At some point Lockwood apparently realized he was being followed and hit the gas, losing control at the exit for Route 3. He was taken to University Hospital in Newark, where he was treated and released, MacFie said.
Clifton and Lyndhurst police are also looking into a possible connection to bank robberies in those municipalities, the captain said.
Lockwood was expected to be remanded to Hudson County jail in Kearny last night and he will likely make his first court appearance in Central Judicial Processing court Monday.