Police on Wednesday identified the man suspected in a Tuesday bank robbery in Vancouver and as being the “Sporty Spice bandit” from two robberies in Oregon earlier this month, as Andrew Lee Lehr, 47.
After he was released from the hospital following treatment for bites from a police dog, Lehr was booked into the Clark County Jail Wednesday on suspicion of first-degree robbery, first- and second-degree assault, attempting to elude officers, and malicious mischief in connection to the Tuesday bank robbery, according to the Vancouver Police Department.
Lehr is suspected of robbing the Wells Fargo bank branch near Vancouver Mall at gunpoint Tuesday morning, then leading police officers on a high-speed car chase through the city.
After striking at least one vehicle and reaching speeds of 100 mph, according to police, Lehr crashed then fled on foot. Officers and sheriff’s deputies, with the help of police dogs, caught up with then detained him. He was taken to a hospital for his injuries.
Lehr’s residence was not available, and the Vancouver police said more charges may be forthcoming.
The FBI said investigators think Lehr is the same man suspected of robbing a Key Bank branch in Tigard, Ore., on June 2 and another Key Bank in Wilsonville, Ore., on June 7.
Investigators dubbed the suspect the Sporty Spice bandit after the athletic apparel he wore in both robberies.
The FBI said Tuesday that Lehr had not yet been charged with any robberies in Oregon, adding any charges will be made in consultation with local and federal prosecutors.
Lehr robbed the Vancouver mall Wells Fargo branch in 2003, according to the Department of Justice.
In 2005, a U.S. District Court sentenced Lehr, then of Portland, to 52 months in prison for the 2003 robbery, part of what the Justice Department at the time described as a string of crimes ranging from Portland to Rapid City, S.D.
According to the agency, Lehr admitted to walking up to a teller window at the bank, placing a bag on the counter and saying, “I want to make a rather large withdrawal. I want hundreds, fifties and twenties.”
Lehr then lifted his sweatshirt to show he had the grip of a pellet or air gun sticking out of his waistband, the Department of Justice said.
He left with more than $8,600. Authorities caught up with him in Missoula, Mont., driving a car he had obtained unlawfully in South Dakota.
At the time, he also faced charges in Multnomah County, Ore., for three robberies at a mall. More information on those cases was not readily available.
The sentence in the 2003 mall Wells Fargo robbery ran concurrently with the five-year sentence Lehr received in South Dakota for grand theft, according to the Department of Justice.
According to court records cited by the agency, Lehr blamed his crime spree on an addiction to methamphetamine.
