Court Documents Reveal New Details About 'Black Hat Bandits'
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- They terrorized bank employees and customers throughout Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. Now, we're learning new details about the men the FBI dubbed the "Black Hat Bandits."
Two have been arrested, and police are looking for more accomplices.
Meghan McCorkell has new information from a new indictment.
According to that indictment, the "Black Hat Bandits" went on a three month robbery spree, netting nearly $200,000.
Surveillance video from inside a bank in Arnold, Maryland shows the men known as the "Black Hat Bandits" sticking up a teller and getting away with thousands.
FBI officials say the bandits held up nine banks over a three month period across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Their reign of terror ended last month at a Wells Fargo in Northwest D.C.
Court documents obtained by WJZ show, with disguises on, Thomas George and Dawitt Hall pointed guns at bank tellers. George yelling: "Give me money or I'm going to kill a customer."
"I could see they had ski masks on. I didn't really get a good look at their faces, and they honestly didn't appear to be hustling that much," said Amy Thoreson, FBI spokesperson.
He wasn't the the only one. A law enforcement agent also spotted the two suspects leaving the bank. They were arrested a short time later.
Investigators say George confessed to robbing nine banks.
FBI officials say as the number of robberies increased, the bandits got more and more confrontational.
"They've actually jumped the counters, they have threatened the clerks and the tellers. They put a gun to a customer's head."
Now the FBI is searching for any accomplices that may have helped the two men in their heist.
In court documents, investigators describe Thomas George as a career bank robber, with convictions dating back to the 1980s.
The "Black Hat Bandits" were such a priority on the FBI's Most Wanted list, at one point, the agency offered a $30,000 reward for their capture.
