Smile for the camera: Authorities capture Mississippi bank robbery suspect after all-afternoon search
Published 6:31 am Wednesday, May 26, 2021
A Mississippi bank robbery suspect is in custody after an all-afternoon search by Mississippi law enforcement.
Eric Boykin of Gulfport was arrested and taken into custody behind the Department Human Services building at 1185 Frontage Road in Prentiss after K-9 units alerted officers of his location.
Boykin is believed to have robbed the Hancock Witney Bank on Columbia Avenue in Prentiss Tuesday shortly after noon.
The suspect reportedly pulled a gun on one of the tellers in the bank and took an undetermined amount of cash. The suspect was on foot in the area.
Shortly after the Hancock Whitney Bank was robbed in Prentiss Tuesday afternoon, Boykin was seen at a home in Jefferson Heights. Joe Rush, who lives on LeMoyne Blvd., said he saw a black male walk from his back yard to his front and lay down in a flower bed as a truck drove by. About 10 minutes after the truck passed, the suspect jumped up and crossed the boulevard and ran through the woods at the end of Victor’s Drive.
“He only had one shoe on when I saw him and he must have crossed the ditch behind the house because his other shoe was muddy,” said Rush. Officers found the second shoe in a yard at the corner of Victors and LeMoyne. “He also didn’t have any money on him because he only had shorts and a t-shirt on.” Rush, and his wife Dannell, were unaware the bank had been robbed when they called the Prentiss Police Dept.
A portion of the money and a hat were also found behind the Rush home.
Officers from the Marion County K-9 unit assisted the Jefferson Davis County Sheriff’s Office and Prentiss Police Department, the FBI, Mississippi Department of Corrections, Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office.