Sheriff's Office Solves Bank Robbery In Just Over 24 Hours

TAMPA, FL -- With little physical evidence, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s detectives, deputies and criminal analysts solved the June 7 robbery of the SunTrust Bank on North Dale Mabry Highway in just 24 hours with the arrest of Michael Joseph Twist, 61.

Just after 1 p.m. on June 7, 2018, Twist reportedly entered the bank located at 12902 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, approached one of the tellers and asked for money, while implying he had a weapon.

After receiving an undetermined amount of cash in an envelope, he fled the area.

Aside from surveillance photos, which were immediately published online, Twist left no other physical evidence leaving detectives with few leads to pursue.

Sheriff’s crime analysts immediately began sifting through mounds of public information in an attempt to identify any patterns, data or material that would move the case forward. Within hours, analysts honed in on Twist, a Hillsborough County resident who had served more than 20 years in prison for a bank robbery in Ft. Lauderdale. He had just finished his probation from that sentence in October 2017.

"This case is, without a doubt, one of the most textbook examples of modern policing that I can think of," said Maj. Kristi Poore, District III commander in charge of the investigation. "The only way we solved this case was by combining old-fashioned police work with state-of-the-art criminal analysis to come together to get this arrest. It was a true team effort in almost record time."

On June 8, one of Twist's acquaintances confirmed his identity in the surveillance photos. By 2 p.m., he was under arrest and later admitted to detectives that he committed the bank robbery.

During his capture, Twist resisted detectives' efforts to arrest him and was in possession of a glass pipe commonly used to smoke crack cocaine.

He is charged with robbery without a firearm, grand theft, resisting an officer without violence and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Image via Hillsborough Sheriff