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Police said a tip led investigators to charge a 42-year-old habitual felon with robbing a northwest Charlotte bank at gunpoint last week.
Steven Lamonte Stitt of Charlotte was in Mecklenburg jail Friday night, charged with armed robbery and resisting an officer.
On July 26, a man wearing dark clothing, a ball cap and sunglasses entered the Wells Fargo branch on Couloak Drive, located off Mount Holly-Huntersville Road near its intersection with Brookshire Boulevard.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said the man approached a teller, showed a semi-automatic handgun and demanded money. Surveillance photos released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed the suspect pointing the black gun over the teller’s counter. He had a large bandage on the side of his neck.
The suspect fled the area after getting the money, police said, and officers and search dogs who arrived at the scene were unable to find him.
But on Wednesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crime Stoppers received a tip from someone who named Stitt as the suspect in the robbery, police said. Following an investigation, detectives signed warrants for his arrest.
Officers found and arrested Stitt around 8:30 a.m. Friday during a traffic stop on Little Rock Road in northwest Charlotte. He was being held in jail under a $51,000 bond.
Stitt’s criminal record dates back to the 1980s. His convictions include selling drugs, larceny and common law robbery, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. In 2003, he was convicted of being a habitual felon, records show.
The same Wells Fargo branch was robbed Tuesday by a man who pulled a gun from his waistband after he walked into the bank. That robber was described as a black man who wore a blue hat, a white striped shirt and dark shorts, according to the FBI.
No one has been charged in that case, and authorities haven’t said whether they believe the crimes might be connected.
