RIPLEY, W.Va. — Police are looking for the man who robbed a bank in Ripley Thursday morning.
The robbery was reported at just before11:30 at the Premier Bank on South Church Street.
Authorities said the suspect was armed, wearing black, carrying a tan bag and wearing a motorcycle helmet when he entered the bank and demanded money. He ran out of the building into some nearby woods. No injuries were reported.
“Several officers saw him several hundred yards away from the bank upon their initial response and then he fled up into the woods,” State Police First Sgt. O.S. Starsick said. “We don’t know if had somebody waiting–we don’t have anything that points to that.”
Schools in the Ripley area were placed on precautionary lock-down status for the rest of the school day. School buses were escorted through the city by police cruisers because the search was still active when schools dismissed. Buses did not run the Cedar Lakes area where it’s believed the suspect could be hiding out.