Thread: Bellmore bank robbery suspect had been deported in '06

Bellmore bank robbery suspect had been deported in '06
BY MATTHEW CHAYES | matthew.chayes@newsday.com
June 27, 2008

Apparently, Earl Hercules Knowles thinks it's not better in the Bahamas.

The cash-tossing bank robber who caused last Friday's Nassau University Medical Center lockdown was deported to the Bahamas just two years ago for a 1992 spree of violent Long Island bank robberies, federal and state officials say.

But somehow, Knowles sneaked back into the United States - only to rob another bank, they say.

Federal officials are baffled about how the ex-con returned despite a ban imposed in 2006, when he was taken from an upstate prison after serving more than 12 years of a 10- to 20-year sentence and put on a flight out of the country, said Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Immigrant criminals can be deported for dozens of offenses, ranging from murder to bank robbery to crimes of "moral turpitude," Gilhooly said.

The agency has no record of Knowles re-entering the country under his name, Gilhooly said.

Now, in addition to the bank-robbery-related felonies filed last week in Nassau County, Knowles could face an additional federal charge of criminally re-entering the United States - a crime punishable by as many as 20 years in prison, Gilhooly said.

Based on the immigration agency's investigation, the local U.S. attorney's office will decide whether to prosecute Knowles federally.

Authorities discovered only last Friday that Knowles, 39, was back in the United States. That's when Nassau cops arrested him and accused him of robbing a Bank of America branch in Bellmore at gunpoint, tossing cash from the getaway car as cops pursued him, and running onto the grounds of the medical center.

The hospital and nine East Meadow schools nearby were virtually shut down during the three-hour hunt for the suspect and his getaway driver. Knowles was found hiding under a car in a parking garage, police said.

Knowles, who had been living in Wyandanch, is now in the Nassau jail facing a decades-long state prison sentence. If he is ever released from local custody, the feds would detain him, Gilhooly said.

The accused getaway driver, Antonio Earl Gibson, 29, of Bay Shore, is jailed on $150,000 bail. He was nabbed Friday wandering the medical center in disguise, police said. Earlier, Gibson gave a pursuing cop the slip by jumping off a 30-foot wall. A police spokesman said Gibson was not injured.

Since 1999, records show, Gibson has been arrested at least nine times, and he's been in and out of jail for crimes such as weapon possession, false personation and assault.

At 25, Gibson nearly died after being shot about seven times in the torso as he ran from a crack deal in Freeport gone bad, according to a Newsday article from 2004 and a police source.

And last Friday, according to DMV records, Gibson was driving the getaway car with a revoked driver's license.

LONG RAP SHEET

July 6, 1986

Knowles, from the Bahamas, flies to Florida.

1992

Knowles goes on a bank robbery spree. During a heist in West Babylon, Knowles shoots at a branch employee, slams her against a desk and pistol-whips another woman.

1994-2006

For the robberies, Knowles is sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. He does time in at least five prisons.

August 2006

Knowles is deported back to the Bahamas. Sometime after August 2006 Knowles illegally re-enters the U.S, officials say.

June 20, 2008

Knowles sticks up a Bank of America branch in Bellmore, police say. He flees, tossing money onto Hempstead Turnpike. With his getaway driver, Knowles tries to hide on the Nassau University Medical Center campus in East Meadow. Nine schools and NUMC's grounds are virtually shut down as cops hunt for Knowles and accomplice.

SOURCES: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency; New York State departments of parole and correctional services
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime ... 2220.story

1. Duh! He sneaked back in - that's how he got here - again, Duh!

2.
Re:

Authorities discovered only last Friday that Knowles, 39, was back in the United States. That's when Nassau cops arrested him and accused him of robbing a Bank of America branch