A man from Pittsburgh’s North Side was sentenced this week to 15 years in federal prison for his role in a 2016 armed bank robbery in Ross.
Albert Clemons, then 64, robbed a First Niagara Bank in the 4800 block of McKnight Road on March 2, 2016, and then led officers on a chase that ended in Shaler, according to Ross police and the FBI.
Police said Douglas Silva, then 61, of the North Side, also was involved in the robbery.
In 2018, both men pleaded guilty to charges of robbery, armed robbery and firearms charges, court records show. Silva died March 4 before being sentenced, his attorney, William McCabe, told the Tribune-Review on Thursday.
An affidavit filed in the case said Silva held bank employees at gunpoint with a silver revolver while Clemons, armed with a semiautomatic weapon, demanded cash. Clemons took cash from a drawer that included three $50 “bait bills,” the affidavit said. Such bills include known serial numbers and are used by banks to aid in tracking bank robbers.
The affidavit said a witness alerted police after spotting — and then following — the getaway car. Police became involved in the pursuit and arrested Silva, who had been driving the vehicle, on Wetzel Road in Shaler, authorities said. Clemons ran into nearby woods, where Shaler and Ross police arrested him.
Police said they recovered the stolen cash, including the “bait bills,” and seized the guns used in the robbery. It was not clear Thursday how much money the men stole.
A semiautomatic handgun used in the robbery had been reported stolen by state police in Uniontown in 2013, according to the FBI.
U.S. Attorney Barbara Kiley Doolittle declined to comment on the case Thursday.
