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Middletown man arrested for robbing bank near police station, throwing money on ground

MIDDLETOWN–Police were quick in their efforts to locate and arrest a bank robbery suspect. Around 11:30 a.m. on Monday a man walked into the Liberty Bank,...
Brian Gallagher

MIDDLETOWN–Police were quick in their efforts to locate and arrest a bank robbery suspect.

Around 11:30 a.m. on Monday a man walked into the Liberty Bank, located at 315 Main St., on the same block as the Middletown police station, and told the teller he was robbing the bank. He told her to give him 50- and 100-dollar bills.

However, after the suspect left the bank on foot, heading west on Court Street, a dye pack exploded. The dye pack is intended to mark the suspect and make the money more difficult to use. He had only made it about 150 feet down the road, and he threw the cash and the dye packs into the snow near 190 Court St.

Based on an image from surveillance video at the bank, Middletown police officers identified the suspect as Brian Gallagher, 45, of Middletown, who they knew from previous interactions. An officer called Gallagher on his cell phone, and Gallagher said he was walking to the bridge.

Officers found Gallagher near the corner of North Main Street and Hartford Avenue. He was holding a pocket knife to his neck, and when officers asked him to put it down he told them to shoot him. One of the offers used a Taser to disarm him, but Gallagher cut his neck where he was holding the knife.

Later on, police found the shirt and coat that Gallagher was wearing during the robbery in his apartment, and they had the red dye smeared on them.

Gallagher was treated at the hospital and then booked at the police station. He was charged with larceny in the sixth degree, robbery in the second degree, interfering with an officer, threatening. He was held on $100,000 bond.

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