BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - A career felon suspected in at least three recent bank robberies is in custody after a wild sequence of events that took place Saturday in Bloomington.
Police confirm that 43-year-old William Roy St. John was arrested by Bloomington officers after a reported carjacking and home invasion. U.S. Marshals were also on his tail in connection with recent bank robberies in Fargo, N.D., Arden Hills and Bloomington.
It all began Saturday afternoon when authorities received a report of a carjacking near the Lucky 13 Pub on the 1800 block of W. American Blvd. An off-duty Eden Prairie police officer witnessed the carjacking and attempted to intervene around 2:15 p.m.
The officer and several bystanders backed off when St. John told them he had a gun, and the suspect then sped off in a white Cadillac.
Minutes later, dispatchers received a call from a woman who said a man had entered her home on the 8200-block of Abbott Avenue, stole car keys and cash, and then fled in her white Cadillac.
Shortly after that call came a report that a man with a knife had threatened a woman in her garage on the 8200-block of Johnson.
The third call was apparently the charm for Bloomington Police, who were alerted of a break-in where a suspect was struggling with two residents.
Officers responded, found the white Cadillac down the street, went inside and arrested St. John.
A 23 year old resident of the house, only identified as "Mark", 23, allowed himself to be taken to the garage of the home, leaving three other young people upstairs.
Mark told Kare11 he did not want to be taken in a car with the man who said he had a gun. When the man turned his back for a moment, Mark tackled him, tumbling down a flight of stairs into the basement.
Mark suffered a cut to his head that required 10 stitches. He began yelling for help from his friend, Scott, 24, who hit the suspect in the head with an iron.
Bloomington Police praised the two young men. "They did a fabulous job, frankly, the two of them," said Commander Mark Stehlik, Public Information Officer. "To make a decision without much opportunity to plan, you know, one guy tackling and the other guy grabbing something to him him with. They did a great job."
St. John was released from a federal prison in Missouri just last month after serving five years for larceny and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Charges could be filed as early as Tuesday.
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