Barrington Sergeant's Arrest of Bank Robber Came on His Day Off

A Barrington police officer is being praised for “one of the best, if not the best, arrests I have seen in 12 years here.” 

And the arrest came on his day off.

Barrington Police Chief John LaCross was referring to the arrests last Friday, July 12, of two Providence men who have been charged with robbing the Bank of America on County Road. 

Sgt. Josh Birrell was the Barrington police officer who spotted the suspects, pursued them north into East Providence and then captured one of them trying to escape on foot.

Birrell spotted a vehicle heading north on County Road (Route 114) soon after he set up a routine traffic post near the White Church. All he had was a description of one of the men, a black male with a mask wearing a white jacket with stripes on the sleeves and a New England Patriots' baseball cap and waving a handgun in the bank. He did not have a description of the Hyundai they were driving.

“The key was his initiative and dedication to duty,” said LaCross of Birrell, who had finished the detail when he heard the report of the bank robbery over the scanner.

“He was fueling up the car at the station,” said LaCross, “after just getting back from a routine construction detail on what is basically his day off.”

That didn’t stop Birrell from jumping back into the cruiser and heading for the White Church at County Road at the end of Federal Road. He established a lookout post, thinking the robber – he thought it was just one bandit at that point -- would head north out of Barrington.

He was right. Birrell saw within minutes what he suspected was the bank robber heading north at about 57 mph. He hit his light bar and gave chase. 

The vehicle actually pulled over near the bird sanctuary off of Wampanoag Trail. While Birrell carefully approached the vehicle, it took off again at a high rate of speed. 

"They goosed it," said Lacross, trying to lose Birrell.

The chase north into East Providence started. The suspects hit speeds of between 80 and 90 mph while trying to lose Birrell in his cruiser. He wasn’t far behind. 

Birrell was soon joined in the chase on Route 114 by several East Providence police cars. The chase took them to Route 195 and then to the exit for Broadway, where the two men turned left and headed south. They soon disappeared into an East Providence neighborhood where they crashed head on into an East Providence police car patrolling the neighborhood searching for them.

At that point, the driver jumped out of the vehicle and tried to escape on foot. Birrell was not far behind. He participated in the capture on the street as well, said LaCross, and then turned him over to East Providence. The other robber was in the backseat, where he was captured.

“You always hope to make a great arrest,” said LaCross. “This was an outstanding collaborative effort, and Josh was the key.” 

No civilians got hurt, the money was recovered and the firearm was seized, LaCross said. It turned out that the handgun was a Daisy pellet gun that closely resembled a Beretta.

The police chief said he heard the report of the bank robbery while in South County for the start of the weekend. He immediately headed back toward East Providence. 

As soon as he saw Birrell back at the Barrington station, LaCross said, “I walked up to him and shook his hand.”

The two men charged, David Lasseque and Pierre Rheau, also are suspects in more than a half dozen other armed robberies throughout southern New England, LaCross said. That brought out FBI agents to the crash cite in East Providence.