Siblings’ cross-country run from the law ends
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
- The brother, sister and half-brother are being called “the Dougherty family”
- A federal arrest warrant ties them to an armed bank robbery in Georgia
- They are suspects in the attempted murder of a Florida police officer during a shootout
- One of them sent a text to his mother saying “There’s a time for all of us to die”
(CNN) — Three siblings suspected in an alleged armed bank robbery in Georgia and the attempted murder of a Florida police officer may have been spotted in Colorado, authorities said.
“The Colorado Springs Police Department received a report that people were spotted in the area of Woodmen and I-25 that matched the description of the Dougherty siblings that began a crime spree in Florida last week,” the Colorado Springs Police Department said in a statement Tuesday. “The trio has been connected to crimes in Florida and Georgia where they allegedly fired shots at an officer that tried to stop the vehicle.”
Officials call them “the Dougherty family” and identified the suspects as Ryan Edward Dougherty, 21; sister Lee Grace E. Dougherty, 29; and half-brother Dylan Dougherty Stanley, 26.
On Tuesday, a U.S. magistrate issued warrants for the siblings’ arrest in connection with a bank robbery in Valdosta, Georgia, where an AK-47 type assault rifle and an apparent machine pistol were used.
Bank robbery suspects fire at police car.
They are also suspects in the attempted murder of a Zephyrhills, Florida, police officer that took place the same day — but five hours earlier and 200 miles away.
The officer wasn’t injured, though occupants in the getaway vehicle fired numerous rounds during a chase reaching up to 100 miles per hour, according to the Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s office. One round went into the police vehicle’s tire, disabling the automobile, the sheriff’s office said.
Since then, the siblings have been the subject of an interstate manhunt, with their faces plastered on hundreds of digital billboards from Florida to Kentucky to Texas.
According to a timeline of events that officials provided, Ryan Dougherty was sentenced Monday in Volusia County, Florida, to 10 years’ probation and two years of community control monitoring for convictions on two counts of sending harmful information to a minor.
After the Monday sentencing, he sent his mother a text message: “There’s a time for all of us to die,” according to the sheriff’s office.
On Tuesday, at 6:30 a.m. ET, a witness saw all three siblings leave in a white four-door vehicle from their Lacoochee home. At 6:59 a.m., Ryan Dougherty cut off his GPS monitoring ankle bracelet near Zephyrhills, the sheriff’s office said.
At 7:12 a.m. Tuesday, the shooting with the Florida police officer occurred, in which 20 high-caliber casings were found at the scene, the sheriff’s office said. The five-mile pursuit began after the officer tried to pull the vehicle over for speeding on State Road 54 in Zephyrhills, located 30 miles northeast of Tampa, authorities said.
Then came the armed bank robbery at a CertusBank in Valdosta, Georgia, at 12:24 p.m. the same day, the FBI said.
During that robbery, three individuals dressed in black with masks entered the bank’s front entrance, the FBI said. Shots were fired at the ceiling, and everyone was told to get down, the bureau said. At least two of the robbers were armed, and the third obtained an undisclosed amount of cash, the FBI said.
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