More than five months after the robbery at U.S. Bank in the Busch Student Center, a suspect is now in federal custody.
The suspect has been identified as Marale Verner, 32, a native of St. Louis. The police report said that his arrest was filed on Jan. 30, though the date of the arrest is unknown. He is now being held under indictment for federal bank robbery.
On Nov. 13, 2007, a man allegedly walked into the U.S. Bank in the BSC and asked the teller to make change for a dollar. Sources said it was unclear whether the man had a weapon, but he supposedly handed the teller a note with a scribbled message:
“This is a robbery in progress. 100s, 20s and 50 [dollar bills], and nobody gets hurt.”
Verner allegedly fled the scene, with an undisclosed amount of money, to a waiting car and sped away.
This may not have been a spontaneous action, however. Sam Simon, former interim director of public safety and current director of emergency preparedness, said that a few minutes before the robbery, an unidentified person placed a call to DPS and said that someone with a gun was barricaded in the bathroom of a building on the west side of Frost Campus. It is not clear which building was mentioned, but Simon said that most of the officers went to investigate. DPS arrived to find that the call appeared to be a diversion, Simon said.
Because of this call, when Verner entered the bank, most DPS officers were not nearby to respond. It has not yet been determined whether the call was a diversion for the robbery.
Everett Marah, an investigator for the Department of Public Safety, who worked on the case, said a tape of this phone call has been provided to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and is currently being analyzed to determine if the two incidents were related.
Almost immediately, the FBI stepped in to take over the case, as it does with all bank robberies, because banks are federally insured. DPS tried to assist, searching for a person of similar description that may have been involved in any past crimes.
In addition to the robbery, Verner is being investigated for possible connections to various crimes at SLU and at Washington University. Because the investigation is still pending, details cannot be released.
Marah confirmed that Verner was arrested in late January for passing a bad check at another bank, though he could not say where. Verner was later tied to the incident in the BSC.
Marah also confirmed that Verner has previous criminal history, but could not release it.
When asked how he feels about the level of security at the bank and the BSC, Marah said it was satisfactory.
“Bank robberies can happen anywhere,” he said.
Michael Lauer, director of public safety, said he isn’t so sure. Most people outside of SLU don’t even know there is a bank inside the BSC, he said. Given this, “it’s clear this guy’s been around,” Marah said.
Immediately after the incident, a security guard from a private company was posted in the bank for a few weeks, according to Daniel Schneider, the bank’s branch manager. He said that the measures already in place are sufficient, so no other steps have been taken to improve upon the bank’s security measures.
“In the wake of [the shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute] and such incidents, people think they are really vulnerable,” he said. “But this is still a safe environment.”
Other than increased patrols, Lauer reports that DPS has not taken any steps to implement new or improved security measures either.
He said that increased awareness is improvement enough.
“The biggest thing is just to be aware of your surroundings,” Marah said. “That’s how people get caught. [DPS officers] can’t be everywhere; we have to have [student’s] eyes to help us out.”
