Two dead, one hospitalized after Cairo bank robbery

A 29-year-old Cairo, Illinois, man faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with an armed robbery Thursday that left two people dead and another hospitalized.

Authorities arrested James Nathaniel Watts about 9 p.m. Thursday after a standoff near a railroad trestle spanning the Ohio River, according to an affidavit filed Friday in federal court in Benton, Illinois.

The standoff followed a high-speed chase involving a car stolen from a bank a man had attempted to rob, the affidavit stated.

About 5:15 p.m. Thursday, a man armed with a knife and handgun tried to rob First National Bank of Cairo, killing two bank employees and critically injuring a third, Illinois State Police confirmed Friday.

According to the affidavit, the suspect approached three female employees as they left the bank after closing and forced them back into the bank in an attempt to rob it. He was unable to obtain any money because the bank was closed, but two employees were killed and another critically injured in the course of the attempted robbery, the affidavit stated.

Surveillance video showed the suspect take the employees' purses, place them in an employee's vehicle and leave in the stolen vehicle, the affidavit stated.

Police spotted the vehicle about 6:55 p.m. Thursday and pursued it, at speeds over 100 mph, before the driver -- later identified as Watts -- abandoned the vehicle near the railroad trestle, fled on foot and tried to hide in the structure of the trestle, where officers arrested him after a two-hour standoff, the affidavit stated.

Victims' names had not been released as of Friday afternoon.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner James Clifton said Friday a person had been brought by ambulance from Cairo to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, where she was pronounced dead Thursday evening.

"There was one person brought in from Cairo by Alexander County ambulance that died at Saint Francis about the time all that was going on, but I can't confirm that she was one of the victims," Clifton said.

Online court records show Watts has prior offenses in Illinois and Missouri.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to 11 counts of forgery, for which he was sentenced to eight months in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and in 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

Also in 2006, Watts pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child and was given concurrent sentences of seven years on each count, online court records show.

Watts is on the Illinois State Police sex offender registry.

In 2005, he pleaded guilty in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court to two counts of forgery, and in 2006, he pleaded guilty to passing a bad check, online court records show.

Illinois State Police on Friday did not mention Watts by name but said in a news release that a "person of interest" was in custody.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

Cairo, IL