Suspect Caught Minutes After Bank Robbery

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Just minutes after a Spartanburg bank was robbed, the suspect was arrested on a sidewalk near the bank.

The NBSC bank on the corner of East Kennedy Street and South Liberty Street was held up at about 10 a.m.

Bank employees were able to call 911 and set off a silent alarm. Spartanburg Public Safety officers arrived on the scene immediately. As they tried to clear people out of the area, officers said a man who they were trying to get to leave the area told them he had robbed the bank.

Officials said that Columbo Banacheck Lipscomb, 33, was not armed. Police said that Lipscomb has a prior conviction for bank robbery, and that just before he robbed the bank on Tuesday, he had attempted to rob a gas station.

Lipscomb, who lives in Pacolet Mills, is charged with bank robbery.