Video: Saltillo Bank Robbed, Man Arrested

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By Allie Martin

SALTILLO, Miss. (WCBI) — A 57-year-old man is in custody after police say he robbed a Saltillo bank Wednesday morning.

It was shortly after 9 when police responded to an alarm at the First American National Bank on Mobile Street.

Officers saw the suspect running from the bank, with a bag of money and a handgun. The dye pack exploded inside the money bag and the suspect ran into a wooded area.

Saltillo Police Chief Grant Bailey caught the suspect in a ditch near near Highway 45 and arrested the man. He is identified as 57 year old Chris Eugene Cosner of Saltillo.

Chief Bailey says Cosner entered the bank, announced he had a gun and also said he had a pipe bomb. Bailey says his officers were already headed to the area because of a 911 call moments before the robbery.

“What basically happened, the best we can figure out at this time, he parked his car at the WOCO, and he walked up here to the bank, parked car at the gas station, walked to the bank, he was actually crouched down in the woods, because before the initial alarm call came out we got a 911 call about a suspicious person in the woods near the bank, less than a minute after that the alarm call came out at the bank,” Bailey said.

Cosner is being held in the Lee County Jail.

Officers recovered a 45 caliber handgun, but have not found the money bag.

Tupelo’s bomb squad was called out to detonate the pipe bomb and officers will also check Cosner’s car to make sure there are no explosives in it.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Department, along with the Mississippi Highway Patrol are assisting in the investigation.