Crime & Safety

Police: Financial Difficulties Led East Haven Man to Rob Banks

The 37-year-old man has reportedly robbed three banks in three months, police say.

An East Haven man who was turned himself in to police yesterday in connection with an armed robbery of a bank in Essex.

Christopher Bishop, 37, was charged Dec. 30 with third-degree burglary and second-degree larceny. The arrest stems from an investigation involving officers from the state police Central District Major Crime Squad, Madison police and .

Bishop was identified as the suspect in an Essex bank robbery, based in part on the similarity of that crime to the ones he was arrested for earlier this month, police said.

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State police responded to the First Niagara Bank branch at 63 Main Street in the Centerbrook section of Essex after receiving a report of an armed robbery at 4:53 p.m. on Nov. 18. This incident was just two hours after the bank robbery in Madison that Bishop was arrested for, police said, and about a month after the one at First Niagara in North Branford.

A search and seizure warrant was obtained from Superior Court and the suspect’s vehicle was seized during the course of this investigation. Bishop reportedly citied financial difficulties as the driving force of committing these robberies, according to police.

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Bishop was held on a court-set $150,000 bond. He was scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court yesterday for an arraignment.


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