The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana has charged two men in connection with bank robberies in Homewood and in Hammond, Ind.
Matayo H. Young, 19, of South Holland and Myron McKinney, 19, of Chicago, were named in a criminal complaint. A third person arrested is a juvenile. According to court documents, the three had searched out locations of four banks.
They were arrested Aug. 6 in Matteson outside a bank. They were officially charged Aug. 8 with robbing Peoples Bank in Hammond.
In the complaint, an FBI agent assigned to the Hammond Police Department alleges the pair were involved in a robbery on Monday, Aug. 3, when Young walked into the Homewood TCF Bank at 17830 Halsted St.
According to the complaint, Young, dressed in black clothing and wearing glasses, a red face mask and a baseball cap, asked the teller for a deposit slip. He wrote a note demanding $5,000 and handed it to a bank teller. The teller gave him $900 in a sealed envelope.
Through surveillance camera footage police saw the suspect get into a black Hyundai occupied by two others. Police were able to get the car license plate.
On Aug. 6, Young told investigators he picked up McKinney and the juvenile and the three decided to rob a bank. They went to the BMO Harris Bank in Hammond. McKinney and the juvenile approached the bank, but didn’t go in.
The FBI affidavit says the second bank robbery took place around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 6, when Young entered the Peoples Bank in Hammond, and handed a teller a note demanding cash. The teller gave him $800 in an envelope.
Surveillance cameras recorded the robbery being committed by a black male wearing a red mask, glasses and black clothing and a Bernie Sanders hat. He fled in a black car.
After that robbery, the FBI agent investigating the Hammond robbery learned of the Homewood bank robbery three days earlier.
Within an hour of the Hammond robbery, police in Matteson were called to a Fifth Third Bank, 21403 Cicero Ave., Matteson, because of men suspiciously entering and exiting the building.
Officers found Young, McKinney and a juvenile sitting outside the bank in Matteson in a black Hyundai with the same license plate as the suspect car from the Homewood robbery.
Police said Young was wearing the hat seen worn by the suspect in the Hammond Peoples Bank and a stud earring seen on the man at the Homewood TCF Bank. Matteson officers said Young asked them to retrieve his money from the car. Officers found $800 in a Peoples Bank envelope.
The three were turned over to Homewood Police. Using a search warrant for the car Homewood police found glasses similar to what the suspect wore in the TCF Bank robbery, the TCF withdrawal ticket with the handwritten note demanding cash, and a red face mask.
On Aug. 7, Homewood police with the FBI agent questioned Young and McKinney.
According to the federal complaint, investigators searched McKinney’s cellphone and found locations for the Homewood TCF Bank and the Hammond People’s Bank recorded on a mapping application, as well a BMO Harris Bank and First American Bank. He also had a photo on his phone showing a wad of cash and a Peoples Bank envelope.
The FBI agent said Young first denied, but later admitted robbing the two banks.
Related story:
- Man robs bank on Halsted Street (Aug. 3, 2020)