KINGMAN – Kingman police report the Tuesday arrest of the second suspect in a Monday bank robbery that resulted in the shooting and hospitalization of the first suspect. The incident began at Mission Bank in the 2400 block of Hualapai Mountain Rd.
Police responded to a report of an armed man who fled a bank robbery late in the morning of Monday, Feb. 26. Witnesses indicated the fleeing suspect hopped into a gray truck that was later spotted in the 2500 block of Kingman Ave. off of Andy Dev. Ave., minutes later and more than a mile away from the bank.
Police Chief Rusty Cooper said one suspect remarkably was inside the Napa Auto Parts store, called a taxi and fled the scene in the same time frame that arriving officers encountered the other weapon possessing suspect and shot him outside. Mario Fragassi, 53, Golden Valley, reportedly suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was in critical condition when flown to a Las Vegas hospital for treatment following the 11:10 am shooting.
Review of surveillance video and interviews of witnesses, some of them bank patrons, led to Tuesday’s apprehension without incident of Christopher Ayala in the 2300 block of Lass Ave. Cooper said Ayala, 48, is from Olivehurst, California and that his association with Fragassi was not clear.
“Investigators determined that Fragassi entered the bank, brandished a handgun and demanded cash from the bank teller while Ayala remained in the parked truck,” Cooper said. “Fragassi ran out of the bank with the stolen cash, $1,715, and fled in the truck driven by Ayala.”
Officers reportedly recovered all of the cash taken in the bank heist from Fragassi. Both suspects are charged with armed robbery and aggravated assault.
The Lake Havasu City police department is conducting an independent review of the shooting, standard procedure when officers are involved.
