The case against a man suspected of robbing two local banks is heading for the grand jury. The man is Kevin Blakeney, 28, of no fixed address, and police believe he robbed both a First Virginia bank and a Chevy Chase bank.
According to Fairfax County police, a man walked into the First Virginia Bank on Saint Germain Drive in Centreville, on Aug. 11, at 12:10 p.m., and approached a teller behind the counter. Police said the man implied that he had a knife and demanded money. The teller then gave him an undisclosed amount of cash, and the man ran out of the bank.
Four days later, Aug. 15 around 1:45 p.m., someone robbed the Chevy Chase Bank inside the Giant Foods store in the Colonnade Shopping Center on Union Mill Road. Police said a man demanded money from one of the tellers, a 21-year-old Centreville woman. Then, after receiving it, the man fled.
However, police were able to obtain a photo of the person suspected of committing the robbery at First Virginia Bank and, after an investigation, they arrested Blakeney in a City of Fairfax motel on Aug. 18 and charged him with that offense. Police later charged him with the Chevy Chase bank robbery, too.
He appeared last Monday afternoon, Oct. 20, in General District Court. At that time, Judge Thomas Gallahue certified Blakeney's three counts of robbery and one count of grand larceny to the next grand jury for possible indictment. Robbery, alone, is punishable by five years to life in prison. Blakeney is currently being held without bond in the Adult Detention Center.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs