Alleged Bank Robbery Fugitive Captured after Attempted Flight and Fight
RICHMOND HILL, GA – Josh Winkelman, 26, wanted by authorities in connection with an October bank robbery in Renovo, is in police custody in Georgia. But according to law enforcement officials, his apprehension did not come easily.
The police department at Richmond Hill, GA made the arrest early yesterday. According to word relayed by Clinton County District Attorney Dave Strouse, police in the Georgia city were investigating what they said was a suspicious person in the restaurant district of town: “The subject, Joshua Scott Winkelman, gave the officers a fictitious name and advised them that he did not remember his birth date. At that point, Winkelman fled on foot, taking officers on a very short foot pursuit. After a brief fight with officers, Winkelman was arrested and identified. While officers were conducting an inventory search of the pick-up truck he had been driving, they discovered loaded firearms and ammunition.”
The DA’s release said Winkelman is currently in prison in Georgia awaiting extradition to Clinton County where “he will have to answer to armed robbery and related charges that stemmed from an incident at the Santander Bank in Renovo.”
It was three weeks ago today, May 2, that a state police drug strike force descended on Winkelman’s 5th Street home in Renovo only to find that he had fled. Authorities had been on the lookout since that time and late last week issued a release terming him “armed and dangerous.” It had been believed he was hiding out in the Summerson Mountain area of Chapman Township.
Word on Winkelman’s apprehension follows by several days the arrest of his companion Toni Sporny on drug trafficking charges. Sporny had been arrested last Thursday when she was found in their 5th Street residence. She remains in the Clinton County Correctional Facility in default of bail. Last Friday also saw the arrest of another Renovo resident in connection with the case. Bobby Joe Winkelman, 34, believed a cousin of Josh Winkelman, was arrested by state police and charged with multiple counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution.
