New charge filed against suspected shotgun robber

Keith Robert Webster, 23, of 516 Burlington St., was charged with armed robbery in connection with a Sunday evening incident on East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

Two men told police a man armed with a shotgun approached them on the street, took money from them and fled on foot.

Webster was charged Wednesday with two counts of armed robbery and one count each of robbery with a dangerous weapon, attempted armed robbery and possession of a weapon of mass destruction. The last charge was related to possession of a sawed-off shotgun during the incidents.

The charges stem from a Tuesday afternoon crime spree that started with a robbery at an RBC Bank automated teller machine on Willow Drive in Chapel Hill. Robberies also were reported at the Wachovia Bank ATM at 3959 New Bern Ave. in Raleigh and at a nearby car wash.

The spree ended with an attempted robbery at the Bank of America ATM at 321 Oberlin Road in Raleigh.

Officers detained Webster near the North Carolina State Fairgrounds a short time after the Bank of America. The license plate of the vehicle he was driving matched the tag number of the vehicle used in the Chapel Hill robbery, police said.

Chapel Hill police said they were investigating any possible link between Webster and another robbery Sunday evening.

A woman using a drive-through Wachovia ATM at University Mall, at South Estes Drive and U.S. Highway 15/501, was robbed by a man matching the description of the suspect in the Franklin Street robbery.

Investigators said there might be another related case in Durham, where a woman said she was followed from an ATM to a car wash and was robbed at gunpoint while the car wash was running.