Bristol police arrested a man who allegedly threatened to kill a woman he abducted during a bank robbery yesterday evening.
According to a press release from the Bristol Police Department, 52-year-old Robert Duperry pulled up to the drive-up teller window at TD Bank on Broad Street while holding a gun to the passenger of the vehicle—a 65-year-old Bristol woman he took hostage. Duperry told the bank teller that if she did not give him money he would shoot his hostage, who has not yet been identified by police, the release said. He then received an undisclosed amount of money and fled.
The vehicle description and license plate were broadcast to all officers, who spotted Duperry’s vehicle a short distance from the bank. Duperry failed to stop and engaged officers in pursuit, displaying a gun out the driver’s window multiple times. At one point, Duperry slowed down and ordered his hostage out of the vehicle. After she got out of the vehicle, Duperry fled again at a high rate of speed. The pursuit ended in Wolcott when Duperry left the vehicle and fled on foot to a wooded area. With help from Wolcott officers, police found dupery in the woods a short time later, and took him into custody without incident.
The hostage later told police that Duperry abducted her from Barnes Chapel on Pound Street in Bristol, where she works in the office. Duperry took the victim’s cell phone and car keys at gunpoint before blindfolding her and tying her hands. He then forced her into her vehicle and left Pound Street. The victim told police they drove around for some time, but could not see where they went. Duperry told her several times that he had bombs with him. The victim, who sustained minor injuries, also heard Duperry make several phone calls in which he threatened to blow up buildings, the release said. It was later learned that the Hartford Police Department received several bomb threat calls from the victim’s cell phone.
When the Hartford Bomb Squad responded to Bristol to process the vehicle and Duperry’s property, no bombs or bomb materials were found.
Duperry was charged with two counts of first degree robbery, two counts of second degree larceny, first degree kidnapping, first degree reckless endangerment, third degree assault, assault of a victim over 60, criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, carrying a pistol without a permit, first degree burglary, first degree threatening, engaging an officer in pursuit and reckless driving. These charges do not include the bomb threats called in to Hartford police.
He was processed and held for court on a $750,000 bond.