
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 28, 1995                   TAG: 9503280074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BANK SUSPECT NABBED FIREFIGHTER SAW CRIME, GAVE CHASE

After a chase on foot through a Northeast Roanoke neighborhood, police arrested and charged a Roanoke man with four bank robberies, including one Monday afternoon.

Calvin Tracy Greene, 27, of the 1800 block of Rorer Avenue Southwest was charged with bank robbery and using a firearm in a felony Monday at the First Union branch at 3625 Williamson Road.

Greene was also charged with robbing the NationsBank at 2206 Melrose Ave. N.W. on Feb. 2; the First Union branch at 301 McClanahan Ave. S.W. on Feb. 24; and the VARO Federal Credit Union at 5005 Melrose Ave. N.W. on March 9.

In each incident, the suspect wore something over his face and walked away from the bank after robbing it. In all but one, the suspect brandished a handgun. No one was injured during any of the robberies.

Police credited the quick thinking of an off-duty Roanoke County firefighter for helping them arrest Greene. Christopher DeMars happened to see the robbery taking place as he left work. He reported it and ran after the suspect.

``I don't know, it seemed like the right thing to do,'' he said shortly after Greene was arrested.

DeMars had seen a man pointing a handgun at a drive-through teller and the teller screaming. He ran back to his truck and called his dispatcher, who alerted Roanoke police.

Within minutes, police surrounded the area of Oakland Boulevard, Cook Avenue and Princeton Circle Northeast, where the robber had fled. DeMars followed the suspect up to Oakland Boulevard, where police picked up the chase.

By the time Jenny Hosaka saw him, the suspect had shed his mask.

``The dogs were going crazy,'' Hosaka said. ``He was going in and out of people's porches and peeking around corners.''

``I kind of didn't think it was any big deal,'' Hosaka said. ``But then I heard the detective say, `Where's the gun?' Then they took him down on the other street.''

A plainclothes detective wrestled the suspect to the ground in a driveway on Cook Avenue Northeast. Police later recovered a small-caliber handgun in some berry vines near Hosaka's house.

walked out of his building Monday

He called in the crime, then run after the suspect.

by CNB