Arizona man in custody following robbery of First National Bank in Cloverdale

Deputies from the Putnam County Sheriff's Department respond to First National Bank at 302 S. Main St., Cloverdale, following a mid-afternoon robbery Tuesday.

Banner Graphic/CHELSEA MODGLIN

SPENCER — An Arizona man is in custody in Owen County on charges of resisting arrest.

Police believe he is linked to the Tuesday afternoon robbery of a Cloverdale bank and an earlier unsuccessful attempt to rob a Morgan County bank.

Emory Ray Stout, 35, of Golden Valley, Ariz., was arrested and booked into the Owen County Security Center on preliminary charges of resist law enforcement with a vehicle, reckless driving and criminal recklessness.

Emory Ray Stout

An investigation into the robbery by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department is ongoing.

The chain of events began to unfold around 1 p.m. when the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department received a call regarding a possible attempted bank robbery at the Peoples State Bank in Paragon.

Employees of the bank reported they had observed an individual in a mask attempting to gain entry at the locked doors of the bank. Unable to do so, the subject left the scene in a blue Dodge truck, southbound on State Road 67.

Then at 1:34 p.m., Putnam County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) dispatched a reported bank robbery at the First National Bank, 302 South Main St., Cloverdale. The initial information indicated the vehicle leaving the bank was a light blue Ford truck.

One minute later, at 1:35 p.m., Putnam County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Matthew Biggs, Cloverdale Officer Billy Wallace and Cloverdale Investigator Rick Lambert arrived at First National. After interviewing witnesses at the bank, Biggs determined the suspect vehicle was in fact a blue, four-door Dodge truck believed to be southbound on U.S. 231 from Cloverdale.

The EOC then dispatched a corrected description of the vehicle along with direction of travel, also notifying the Owen County Sheriff’s Department.

At 1:48 p.m., Owen County deputies Mitch Fleetwood and Brandon Gasparovic responded to the dispatch and located a vehicle matching the description southbound on U.S. 231 from the SR 67 junction. As the deputies attempted to turn around and investigate, the suspect vehicle began accelerating away from them and continued south toward Spencer.

Prior to deputies attempting to make a traffic stop, the vehicle began making unsafe passes and accelerated to speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Deputies activated their emergency lights and attempted to stop the vehicle, which fled from them.

A sign on the front of First National Bank in Cloverdale notifies customers of the bank’s closure following a Tuesday-afternoon robbery.

Banner Graphic/CHELSEA MODGLIN

As the suspect vehicle approached Fletcher Avenue and Garden Park in Spencer, officers with the Spencer Police Department were able to deploy tire deflation devices and successfully punctured the passenger side tires of the vehicle.

The suspect continued to flee and turned eastbound on SR 46, before turning onto River Road and heading toward Pottersville Road. At the intersection of River Road and Pottersville Road, the suspect lost control of the vehicle at low speeds and left the roadway before making contact with a deputy’s vehicle.

After the vehicle stopped, Stout was taken into custody without further incident.

With Stout already in jail in Owen County, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department continues its investigation into the robbery.