Manhunt underway after Durham bank employee shot during robbery

Durham police were searching for a robber after a bank employee was shot and wounded during a bank heist Wednesday afternoon, police said.

The incident occurred around 2:45 p.m. at a SunTrust bank branch at 2008 E. N.C. Highway 54, police said.

The male bank employee suffered a gunshot wound to the arm during the incident. The worker, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to a local hospital and treated for what was believed to be a non-life-threatening wound, a police spokeswoman said.

According to police at the scene, the robber entered the bank and demanded money. The bank employee was shot during that exchange. Shortly after the robbery, police released surveillance photos of the suspect.

The photos captured the suspect wearing a pink aviator jacket, black sunglasses, black pants and a long wig with dreadlocks or braids. The photos also showed the man, who is between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, brandishing a gun and holding cash as he ran out the bank door.

It was not immediately clear if there were other customers in the bank when the robbery occurred.

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Brian Nelson, whose wife works at the bank, said she called him in the moments after the incident and was hysterical.

"All I got was, 'We just got robbed, and somebody got shot.’ That's all I knew," he said. "As soon as I got here, all I saw was police cars. I haven't even had a chance to talk to her yet."

Nelson's wife said that, when the robber said something to her, "she just got down on the floor and started crying, so he shot the guy next to her."

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Several police cruisers responded to the scene as police tried to find the robber. Investigators on the scene told WRAL News that he was wearing a bandana or a mask that partially obscured his face.

The SunTrust robbery was the second bank robbery reported Wednesday in Durham.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m., a man entered the CresCom bank branch at 4215 University Drive and demanded money from a teller, authorities said. Police said in a written statement that no weapon was seen and no one was hurt during the incident.

He left the bank with an undisclosed amount of money.

Police said a short time later, Joseph Alexander Rice, 33, of Durham, was arrested in connection with the CresCom incident. Rice has been charged with one count of common-law robbery, police said.

Investigators did not publicly disclose what led them to Rice.

Anyone with information about the SunTrust robbery was asked to call Durham police.