A 56-year-old Harper Woods man is being held on a $1 million bond after police say he passed a threatening note to a teller at a Huntington Bank branch in Warren and walked out with cash. Roylee Darryl Buck, Jr. was arrested Nov. 6 and arraigned the same day on a bank robbery charge, a life offense, in connection with the Nov. 3 incident on E. 10 Mile Road.
Prosecutors allege Buck robbed the Huntington Bank branch three days before his arrest, according to MLive.com. Investigators said he handed a bank teller a note demanding money and indicating he had a weapon. The teller gave Buck an undisclosed amount of cash, and he left the bank, per the outlet's report.
Warren police identified Buck as the suspect through investigative efforts and took him into custody on Nov. 6. The same account notes that authorities conducted a search and found evidence connecting him to the bank robbery, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.
Life Offense Charge and Habitual Offender Notice
Buck was arraigned in 37th District Court on the bank robbery charge, which carries the potential of a life sentence, per the prosecutor's office. He also has a habitual offender fourth-offense notice attached to his case, the report states. His bond was set at $1 million cash or surety, and he is scheduled to appear for a probable cause conference on Nov. 17.
Prosecutor's Office Vows Aggressive Pursuit
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said bank robbery is a serious criminal offense and that people should not fear for their safety while doing their job. Lucido said his office will aggressively prosecute people who use threats or intimidation to commit crimes and hold offenders accountable under the law.
Echoes of Earlier Metro Detroit Cases
Bank robberies have surfaced before in the region. A 2014 report from the Macomb Daily said a person named Roy Lee Buck Jr. was arrested for the Aug. 30 robbery of a Fifth Third Bank in Royal Oak and was charged with one count of bank robbery carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. The available evidence does not establish whether that person is the same Roylee Darryl Buck, Jr. named in the current case.
Separately, CBS News Detroit reported that FBI agents considered a person named Buck a suspect in a series of bank robberies across Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties beginning in March 2014. Again, nothing in the evidence confirms that report involved the man now charged in the Warren case. A report from The Metro Detroit News also described two Metro Detroit banks, one in Royal Oak and one in Warren, robbed in broad daylight on Election Day, with investigators from both departments working to determine whether the same suspect was responsible for both. That report does not establish a connection to Buck's current case.
