Suspects in North Canton bank robbery arrested in Pennsylvania

Three Canton-area residents who are accused of robbing a bank in Pennsylvania last week are believed to have been involved in robbing the Citizens Bank last month in North Canton, North Canton police said Saturday.

North Canton police listed the suspects as Matthew D. Smith, 32; Christopher Lucius, 36 and Latoya Young, 43, all with Canton addresses.

Police did not disclose what evidence they had linking the three to the July 18 bank robbery.

The department said a man wearing a dark medical mask and wearing a hooded sweatshirt showed a gun at the Citizens Bank at 1000 N. Main St. on July 18. He took an undisclosed amount of money and fled as a passenger in a stolen Honda Civic, according to witnesses.

Police: Masked, armed man robs Citizens Bank in North Canton

Canton trio accused of bank robbery in Pennsylvania

At 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, Center Township police in Beaver County along with officers from the nearby police departments in Aliquippa and Monaca, Pennsylvania, responded to a report of a bank robbery. The heist took place at the First Commonwealth Bank branch at 80 Wagner Road, Center Township Police Chief Aldo Legge told Beaver County Radio.

The bank is a roughly 96-minute drive from North Canton.

The three Canton residents were arrested after the robbery. Legge told Beaver County Radio that $80,000 was stolen from the bank.

According to Beaver County online court records, the three, were arraigned in Magisterial District Court on Wednesday night. They are being held in the Beaver County Jail each on $1 million bond. They have a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Sept. 11. The three have been charged with felonies of robbery with the threat of immediate serious harm; robbery with the demand of money from a financial institution; and conspiracy to commit robbery with the threat of immediate serious harm. Lucius and Young have also been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery with the demand of money from a financial institution.

The North Canton police’s statement said officers expect the U.S. Attorney’s Office will file federal charges against the defendants “along with other local cases.”

North Canton police said it worked with the FBI to locate the suspects and that investigators had the three under surveillance Wednesday. And its statement said the FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police were involved in taking the three into custody.

As of Saturday, no federal charges against the three had appeared in the federal court docket, and no local charges related to bank robberies could be found on any Stark County online court docket.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.