NYPD cop-turned-robber Christian Torres was formally charged by federal prosecutors in New York today for robbing a pair of Manhatan banks to the tune of $118,000, authorities said.
Torres, 21, a rookie police officer, remains behind bars in Pennsylvania, where he has been charged by the feds there for a gunpoint heist in which he took off with $113,000.
Prosecutors in Manhattan – where his alleged crimes took place last year – said they are working out the logistics with their counterparts in the Keystone State as to where he will be tried first.
He was arrested on April 10 in Muhrenberg, where he told cops he was so determined to rob a bank there that despite getting “cold feet” at one location, he stayed overnight and held up a different branch the next day, court papers released today show.
Torres inexplicably waived his Miranda rights and spilled the beans about his dastardly deeds.
He told cops that on April 9 he went to a Sovereign Bank just north of Reading, Pa., and asked an employee in the parking lot about mortgage rates,” according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania.
But Torres told cops, “I got cold feet” and returned to the motel to sleep for a few hours.
He waited until the following morning, and then went to another Sovereign, not far from the first one, to take another crack at it.
“If the attempt didn’t work out, he intended to return to his home in New York City,” the papers say.
Torres told cops that around 8:10 a.m. he saw a woman – identified by the feds as a customer service manager – in the parking lot and, like the previous day, asked about a mortgage.
Torres then stepped back to answer a cell phone call, and the manager ducked into the bank.
Her suspicious co-workers tried to lock him out, but he pushed his way in, prompting one employee to trigger a silent alarm.
When the manager again said the bank was closed, Torres pulled out a gun and said, “Are you sure?” according to the court papers.
He had the manager fill a plastic bag with cash from the vault, then took off in a Toyota Scion.
He was pulled over a short time later, and “identified himself as a law enforcement office,” the papers say.
He was arrested, and cops recovered a Glock Model 26 handgun.
Torres – who cops said took $113,000 from the bank – confessed to the robbery after he was taken back to the station, the papers say.
His choice of Sovereign Banks matches the charges in New York, where he twice cleaned out the same East Village branch of the chain, Manhattan prosecutors said.
On June 8, he gave a teller a note saying “empty both drawers” and threatened to “start shooting,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court. Torres fled with $16,305.
On Nov. 16, he robbed the same location at 57 Ave. A as they were opening for business. He forced the workers into the vault and forced them to tie up one colleague.
Only then did he put on a black ski mask to shield his identity, the papers say.
Torres had them stuff a bag with what ended up being $102,000, and left – telling them “if one of them looked at him funny, he would be back, but not for money,” the complaint says.
Cops said he used the money to buy his fiance, Jennifer Rivas, an engagement ring, and for a new car and to pay his bills.
He appeared in court in Muhlenberg today wearing a prison-issue yellow shirt, blue pants and with his hands cuffed and his legs shackled together.
Torres’ mother sobbed uncontrollably as a judge granted a continuance so that federal prosecutors could take over the case.
When asked about his client’s Pennsylvania confession, Torres’ lawyer, Paul Missan, said he, “can’t get into the facts of the case.”
“We need to take a look and see what they have. Right now we are at the early stages. We have to look at what the federal government has.”
Additional reporting by Eric Lenkowitz