Christmas Eve Bandit Sentenced For South Side Bank Robbery

CHICAGO, IL - A Calumet City man was sentenced last week to 84 months in prison in connection to the robbery of a TCF Bank on the South Side on Christmas Eve in 2015. Damon Murphy, 34 was also ordered by a judge to provide restitution to the bank and must be on supervised release following the completion of his prison term, according to FBI Special Agent Janine L. Wheeler.

A criminal complaint from 2015 indicates Murphy was identified by one bank employee as likely one of two men who entered the bank while armed and forced themselves into a room that held the bank's money on Dec. 24. The two robbers made off with more than $3,000 from the bank at 233 W. 87th St. in a tan van.

Two days after the robbery, a man named Davonyay Pratt turned himself in as one of the robbers and provided Calumet City police with details that led to the capture of Murphy a few days later. Murphy was arrested by police in Chicago on other charges before the FBI linked him to the bank robbery.

Three people also called in to the FBI with information that helped lead them to Murphy after a television report about the bank robbery aired. Multiple people told FBI agents that Murphy was known as "Red" and lived in an apartment on State Street in Calumet City.

Photo via FBI