A 66-year-old South Bend man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for robbing a Chase Bank branch in downtown Noblesville at gunpoint in 2023, then leading police on a chase before he was caught days later in his home city. Terry Reed pleaded guilty to bank robbery and to brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and a federal judge also ordered him to serve five years of supervised release once his prison term ends.
U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon handed down the sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The robbery unfolded at 10:08 a.m. on June 12, 2023, when Reed walked into the Chase Bank at 198 Logan Street, in the heart of Noblesville's historic courthouse square district, and carried a long-barreled revolver, according to WIBC 93.1 FM. He left with $3,796 in cash, per the station's report.
U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler said the sentence sends a message about how the office treats crimes like this one. “The sentence demonstrates that this conduct will not be tolerated,” Wheeler said, per the same account. He thanked the Westfield Police Department, the Mishawaka Police Department, the FBI and federal prosecutors for their work building the case.
A Chase Through Two Counties
The manhunt began almost immediately after the robbery, when a Westfield Police Department officer noticed Reed's vehicle and began a pursuit. According to the same report, the officer eventually lost sight of the vehicle after Reed drove recklessly to escape. It would be four more days before investigators caught up with him roughly 90 miles away.
On June 16, 2023, officers located Reed in South Bend, sitting in the vehicle believed to have been used after the robbery. When police moved to detain him, Reed ran away on foot and threw a .38-caliber Colt revolver as he fled, according to the Department of Justice. Officers recovered the discarded weapon, along with other items Reed dropped during the chase, tying him directly to the crime scene in Noblesville.
A Firearm Enhancement That Locked In Years
Reed's sentence was shaped heavily by federal law governing firearms used in violent crimes. Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(ii), brandishing a firearm during a federal crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison, and that time must run consecutively to any sentence imposed for the underlying robbery, according to the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Federal bank robbery itself, charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), carries a statutory maximum of up to 20 years, meaning the firearm charge alone accounted for the bulk of Reed's eventual term.
Reed's criminal history extends well beyond central Indiana. He has prior felony convictions for aggravated battery in Cook County, Illinois, for armed robbery in St. Joseph County, Indiana, and for armed robbery in Fulton County, Georgia, according to WIBC 93.1 FM.
Federal Agents Call Bank Robberies a Community Threat
FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O'Malley said armed robberies like the one in Noblesville put far more than a single teller at risk. He told WTHR that such crimes severely endanger bank employees, customers, responding officers and the surrounding community.
The case also reflects broader momentum inside the FBI's Indianapolis Field Office, which reported a 112% increase in total arrests across its Indiana jurisdiction in 2025 compared to the year before, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That local surge stands in contrast to a national trend: FBI Crime Data Explorer statistics show reported robbery offenses across the country fell 8.2% in the 12-month period ending in March, per the agency's data.
The Justice Department's own policy guidance encourages joint federal and local cooperation in bank robbery investigations, which explains why departments in Hamilton and St. Joseph counties worked alongside federal agents on a single case spanning nearly two hundred miles. Local police typically handle the initial response and pursuit, while federal agencies take over tracking fugitives across jurisdictions and pursuing federal charges. The Chase branch on Logan Street sits along a commercial corridor where banks have operated near Noblesville's county courthouse since the early 20th century, according to the Historical Marker Database.
