Police Arrest Suspect in Attempted Bank Robbery

UPDATED: January 5, 2017 at 4:47 p.m.

Law enforcement officials arrested an escaped federal prisoner suspected of attempting to rob a bank in Central Square Thursday, according to the Massachusetts State Police.

Investigators named James W. Morales, a fugitive from the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island, as matching the physical description of the suspect in an attempted bank robbery in Central Square. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies searched for Morales throughout the Thursday afternoon and apprehended him in Somerville after a foot chase.

Morales went missing from the Detention Center last weekend and had since been pursued by the United States Marshall Service. A former Army reservist, Morales was placed at the Detention Center for allegedly stealing assault weapons and handguns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Mass. He will be booked in Medford, Mass., the State Police reported on Twitter.

The suspect entered a Bank of America in Central Square Thursday and passed a note demanding money, but he did not succeed in robbing the bank, the CPD reported.

—Staff writer Michael E. Xie can be reached at michael.xie@thecrimson.com.