By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Police seek suspect in bank robbery
No weapon shown; no one hurt
1121robbery
The Peach State Bank in downtown Gainesville was robbed at about 11:10 Friday morning. - photo by Tom Reed

Authorities are investigating a bank robbery that occurred Friday morning at the Peach State Bank on Washington Street. No one was hurt.

Gainesville Police Lt. Nina Harkins said police responded to a silent alarm at the bank at 11:19 a.m. Friday.

Harkins said a white man in his 40s walked into the bank around 11:10 a.m., told a teller that he had a gun and ordered her to give him her money. The teller complied and the man fled the bank, walking out the front door while holding the cash in his hands, Harkins said.

The man did not display a weapon during the robbery. Customers were in the bank at the time, but no one was harmed.

Harkins said authorities did not have a vehicle description. The man was described as being about 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds with thinning blonde hair, wearing a green flannel shirt with a white T-shirt with writing underneath. He did not wear a disguise during the robbery, though surveillance images show him putting his hand over his face while inside the bank.

Gainesville police and the FBI continue to investigate the robbery, which temporarily closed the bank.

It was at least the second bank robbery Friday in Georgia. A SunTrust bank in Buckhead was robbed shortly after 10 a.m. by a black man, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Bank robberies tend to occur on Fridays, when more cash is on hand for payday transactions.

The FBI said one man may have robbed as many seven banks in the metro Atlanta area north of the Perimeter in the past month, but the description of the robber who struck the Gainesville bank today does not fit the same profile.