MACON, Ga. — A Macon man with a criminal history was convicted on Tuesday of robbing a Macon bank back in February 2023, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
They say Gabriel Bell, 29, was found guilty of one count of bank robbery for entering the Truist Bank on Riverside Drive with a blue surgical mask and demanding money from the clerk.
They say he handed a note to the teller saying "PUT ALL BIG BILLS IN EVELOPE (ROBBERY) Do anything stupid, and I'll shoot you!"
The clerk threw their hands up and told Bell that she did not have any money, and she then handed the note to another teller. That employee gave Bell money and then Bell fled, the press release said.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office later released a photo of the suspect from surveillance cameras at the bank.
While federal authorities were unable to find any weapon, tellers at the bank said that Bell lifted his shirt and revealed an object that was "dark, silver, with a handle" that could have been a gun.
Surveillance video also appeared to show Bell grabbing at his hip in the same place where tellers say the object was located.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says Bell was brought to the FBI's attention based on forensic evidence they found on the note Bell passed to the tellers. The FBI was able to develop "two latent prints that were determined to belong to Bell," the press release said.
The FBI also obtained information from Bell's cell phone and Google account which authorities say demonstrated Bell was near the bank when the robbery took place.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Bell had been convicted of robbing the Huddle House in Jeffersonville back in 2015. He had previously been convicted in federal court in North Carolina for illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
Bell had been on supervised release when he was said to have robbed the Truist bank.
The case was investigated by the Bibb County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.
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