Police: Man Phones In Bomb Threat, Then Robs Tulsa Bank With Mother In Car

Police arrested two robbery suspects minutes after the robbery Wednesday morning, then had to catch one of them again when he ran from officers at police headquarters. 

The string of incidents began when the robber went into the Arvest Bank at 36th and Yale with a gun and left with some cash. Police quickly spotted his car and followed it east on Highway 412 beyond Catoosa. Police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol converged on the Dodge Nitro at 305th east Avenue.

Police arrested Christopher Caskey. He's been in handcuffs many times before. Caskey has an extensive criminal record in Tulsa, Pawnee and Rogers Counties mainly for burglary and he's been charged before with trying to elude officers.

Police searched the SUV and got the money back.

They also arrested Caskey's mother - who they say was driving - but detectives are not clear on how aware she was of what was happening while they were behind the car - during this unusual pursuit well outside the city limits.

Sergeant Brandon Watkins, Tulsa Police Robbery Detective, said it's unusual to make a bank robbery arrest so quickly.

"That doesn't happen very often, but here we had good information, the crime had just occurred, we knew he was armed and, and no we're not giving up."

After Caskey was questioned downtown, he briefly escaped custody at the police department and was tackled at gunpoint outside.

He was wearing handcuffs the whole time and after that went straight to jail where he's now been booked for the robbery and escape, and making a bomb threat.

Tulsa Police say he called in a bomb threat to Nathan Hale High School to distract police attention from the robbery at the bank.

Caskey is being held on five complaints: Two counts of robbery with a firearm/dangerous weapon, one count of false report of crime, one count of bomb threat, and one count of escape from arrest.