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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
GPD Search
GPD Search

Update 8:00 p.m. —

GPD has issued an update saying the car was found parked and not crashed, as originally reported. A replica gun was found nearby.

"GPD Investigators are working some additional leads that may lead to smaller-scale searches throughout the night," according to a report posted by GPD on Facebook.

Update 8:19 p.m. —

The suspect has been taken into custody by GPD.

The original story is below.


Authorities are still searching for a man who robbed the Campus USA Credit Union on Archer Road on Tuesday afternoon.

The man, who is currently believed to be 31-year-old William Rossignol, walked into the bank at about 1:40 p.m. wearing khaki shorts and a black T-shirt with a skull on the front, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.

The man then pulled up his shirt to show the teller a handgun, Tobias said, and the bank called police shortly after.

Wanted Mug
GPD

Rossignol is suspected of robbing a Wells Fargo bank Wednesday, July 20, and he was arrested Nov. 4, 2015, for stealing an iPad from the Hall of Heroes, a room at GPD headquarters, according to multiple press releases.

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Soon after Tuesday’s robbery, a GPD sergeant chased a gray Honda Accord, which Rossignol is known to drive, until it crashed at Phase Two of Lexington Crossing Apartments. The driver then ran away.

“We know that he’s a drug user; we know that he’s desperate,” Tobias said.

By about 4 p.m., nearly 20 people waited down the road from the apartments, where authorities took turns blocking the entrance as the search continued.

Lindsay Gamble, an 19-year-old UF public relations sophomore, held an orange and blue umbrella in temperatures that reached more than 90 degrees.

“That’s pretty scary because I live there, so hopefully they catch him,” she said.

Further down the road, Gainesville Police, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies and University Police lined Southwest 28th Terrace, where authorities searched several spots, including a home where an alarm was triggered, Tobias said.

Cars began to line each side of Southwest 35th Place as people watched the search or waited to drive to their homes in the neighborhood.

Ce’Ara Anderson waited nervously to enter the neighborhood, where she said her young niece was possibly home alone.

“They told me that it’s not safe for me to go home, so I don’t think it’s safe for her to be at home,” she said.

Anderson, an 18-year-old Santa Fe College political science sophomore, said she works at SunState Federal Credit Union, and that she had heard about last week’s Wells Fargo robbery.

Authorities later reopened the Southwest 28th Terrace neighborhood and focused mainly on Lexington Crossing Apartments, according to a press release.

“I wanted to go home after work, make my pancakes and clean up my house,” Anderson said.

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