Suspect in bank heist caught

Written by Byron Hensley | 27 August 2010

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A suspect apprehended recently for an attempted bank holdup in Georgia, appears to be the same individual who recently held up Manchester’s First Vision Bank via cell phone.
The suspect, identified as Timothy Shane Kellum, 32, of Cheatham County, was apprehended by authorities in Ringgold, Ga., for allegedly attempting to hold up a bank there using the same mode of operation, MPD Criminal Investigator Billy Butler said. After traveling this week to Ringgold with Assistant District Attorney Billy Cook, Butler said all indications are that Kellum was the one who attempted to hold up the bank here.
“Yes, he is,” Butler said.
“Early in our investigation, we developed information that he’d try to hold up another bank in Ringgold, Ga. We alerted the authorities down there to that fact, and they alerted everybody involved down there. They caught him attempting to rob a bank.”
The Saturday Independent had previously reported on an unidentified white male subject who allegedly robbed the branch of First Vision Bank on Hillsboro Highway in Manchester around 2 p.m. Friday, July 9, taking an undisclosed amount of cash.
Butler said at the time that witnesses who followed the escape vehicle, a blue Ford Explorer, reported seeing the vehicle exit onto I-24 in the direction of Chattanooga.
Manchester Police Chief Ross Simmons later told W.F.T.Z. News that in the course of the robbery, a male caller called a bank employee by cell phone, and told the employee to place money in a bag outside of the facility, or he would blow up the bank’s trailer office. Simmons said the man pulled through, grabbed the cash, and drove off. Simmons said investigators were attempting to trace the robber’s cell phone signature. Simmons said the robber never produced a weapon.
Butler said Kellum will be charged with the Manchester robbery, after prosecutors with the U.S. District Attorney’s office decide if they want Kellum tried in federal court or local courts.