BRENTWOOD, CA – On March 23 at approximately 1500 hours, a vigilant citizen reported a subject matching the description of the “Bearded Bandit” was in the Safeway parking lot on Balfour Road. The citizen provided a good suspect and vehicle description.
Update: The FBI has identified the man as Kenneth Ellis, 30 of Stockton.
Brentwood patrol officers and detectives responded and ultimately contacted the suspect in his vehicle in a nearby residential neighborhood. The suspect surrendered peacefully without any injury to him or involved police personnel.
The suspect was positively identified as the serial bank robber known as the “Bearded Bandit” responsible for several bank robberies throughout the bay area. He was turned over to Concord Police Department investigators and ultimately booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.
The suspects name and photograph are being withheld at the request of the Concord Police Department due to the ongoing nature of the investigation and multitude of agencies involved.
The Brentwood Police Department would like to publicly thank the original reporting citizen for their heightened sense of awareness and willingness to take the initiative to report their observations.
Without this community support, the Bearded Bandit may have been free to commit additional robberies.
If you have additional information or questions regarding this investigation, please contact Corporal Chris Blakely (Concord PD Public Information Officer) at 925-603-5913 or Prentice Danner (Public Affairs Specialist FBI San Francisco Division) at 415-558-2511.
Editors Note:
After Brentwood Police took him into custody at Claremont Drive and Woodsong Lane in Brentwood, he was transferred over to Concord Police where he was taken to the police station for questioning and processing. He is currently being held at the Martinez Detention Facility.
Prior to being arrest, the suspect allegedly went into CVS and shaved his head and beard to create a new look.
The suspect’s name has not yet been released, but according to sources, he is from Stockton.
6 comments
I like how when the perpetrators in these articles are of Aryana descent they never get called “thug” or “lowlife” by our regular ECT pundits (including the recent Oakley child vandals). Where’s all the racist comments now, folks? 🙂
* Aryan descent
This guy is clearly an idiot and a typical dirtbag looking to cut corners instead of slugging it out and making an honest living. But your suggestion of insulting children and then pulling the race card is equally idiotic. Lots of people on here are very hung up on race……pretty lame.
Nick, I agree. My comment was basically geared towards those that always use race as an explanation for the east bay’s crime. And it still stands true: white criminals on ECT are never insulted like members of other races on here, just sayin. Hey, a little bit of sarcasm never hurt anybody ?
This guy owns a business and was trying to make an honest living. He was too nice for his own good, he hired too many people and didn’t want to fire anyone, he was presumably trying to continue to pay his employees. I wasn’t close with him nor did I know of this bearded bandit case, had I seen it I would’ve reported something but I must say he is not a low life just a desperately nice man who felt panicked.
Different Nick here… white people aren’t insulted because we live in a predominately white world, and whites and Asians are praised, and other races are discriminated against. You can’t paint everybody with a broad brush. There are good and bad people of ALL races.
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