Authorities Still Looking For Bank Robbery Suspect

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were back at an east Charlotte apartment complex where a bank robbery suspect managed to elude them Wednesday night.

Agents went through the woods behind the McAlpine Ridge apartments along Independence Boulevard early Thursday, looking for clues that might lead them to Taj Pittman.

They said Pittman is a suspect in several bank robberies in the Charlotte area, including the robbery of a Wachovia branch in Kannapolis last month.

Kannapolis police had arrested Pittman for that robbery on Nov. 21, and an FBI agent had gone to the jail Wednesday to serve a federal warrant on that same robbery charge only to learn that Pittman had bonded out the day before.

The Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office told Eyewitness News the FBI never requested a hold to be put on Pittman, which would have kept him in jail until federal agents got there.

An FBI spokeswoman said she couldn't comment on the case because it's still under investigation.

But spokeswoman Amy Thoreson said Pittman could be armed and dangerous, and she asked for help finding him.

"We're hoping that anyone who may have seen him today, getting on a bus, getting in a cab, trying to get on a train (will call). We know he wants to leave Charlotte and we want to find him as soon as we possibly can," Thoreson said.

The FBI is asking anyone who knows where he is to call 911.

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