A SWAT team poured into an office building across from a just-robbed bank Tuesday after someone called the bank threatening to shoot people if a suspect arrested there wasn’t released.
Police arrested a man in a robbery at the Commercial Bank of Florida that happened around 10:30 a.m. Shortly after the arrest, the bank got a call from a man who identified himself as the brother-in-law of the man in custody, police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said.
At about the same time, people ran out of an office building across the street saying there were two men with guns, Hernandez said.
Authorities did not find any gunmen during extensive searches of surrounding buildings.
“We had another person involved that was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the FBI and Miami Beach Police department from a telephone,” Hernandez said. “Now where that person is, we thought he might be in the area because he had such good information.”
Hernandez said the caller could be anywhere, however, and was still communicating with police by phone.
The manager of the bank alerted a friend about the robbery by e-mail and the friend called authorities, Hernandez said. There were no hostages or guns involved in the robbery, he said.