PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man who earned a heroism award from Portland police five years ago for disrupting a bank robbery is himself facing a bank robbery charge.
After the Albina Community Bank in northeast Portland was robbed on Wednesday, police tracked a pickup truck. Then a police dog led them to a house and eventually, a man stepped out from behind it and told officers, “It’s me you want.”
Officer Scherise Hobbs asked 49-year-old Mark Rothwell why, and he replied, “I just robbed the bank,” according to federal court documents, The Oregonian reported.
In 2010, Rothwell won a Civilian Medal for Heroism from police for disarming a would-be bank robber.
Rothwell told The Oregonian at the time that he saw the fear on a teller’s face, so he jumped at the man, knocked the gun away, and held him down until police arrived. The gun turned out to be a fake.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said then. “Someone points a gun at a girl just a couple of years older than my own daughter. It just rubbed me the wrong way.”
There was little information Friday about Rothwell’s current circumstances.
His public defender lawyer, Ruben Iniguez, declined to comment. Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson, the bureau’s spokesman, said he didn’t have any background information on Rothwell.
He was described in 2010 as the owner of a renovation company who had come to the bank to ask about exchange rates in anticipation of a trip to London, where he’d once lived.
On Wednesday, tellers said they put $15,703 in a bag cinched by rope after a man pointed a gun at them.
After Rothwell was arrested, officers said they recovered a white bag containing cash, a black knit cap, black gloves and a 9 mm handgun.
He is to be arraigned March 12.
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