Feds taking over Neosho bank robbery case

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri filed a complaint in federal court today against the suspect in the armed robbery Friday of a bank in Neosho.

Richard Allan Bratt, 57, of rural Diamond, was charged in U.S. District Court in Springfield with robbery of a bank with a dangerous weapon. The Newton County prosecutor’s office filed state charges against Bratt last week for first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and felony resisting of arrest.

Bratt is accused of holding up the U.S. Bank at 1094 S. Neosho Blvd. shortly before noon Friday. The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release today that an alert employee of the bank triggered a silent alarm when Bratt entered the bank wearing a “Jason”-style hockey mask and displaying a handgun.

Bratt allegedly ordered one employee to the ground at gunpoint and then commanded two tellers to fill a bag with cash from two drawers behind the bank’s service counter. The robber was seen fleeing the bank in a white Chevrolet Lumina that was spotted minutes later by a police officer entering the parking lot of the Wal-Mart store on Neosho’s south side.

Bratt was surrounded by police officers in the lot and taken into custody after being shocked with one of the officer’s stun gun.

The suspect allegedly confessed to several unsolved armed robberies in the area, including three other bank robberies in Joplin, Webb City and Independence, Kan. Charges in those cases have yet to be filed. The FBI has been working with Neosho police since the arrest of Bratt.