VINEYARD HAVEN — Employees at the Rockland Trust branch in this island village were still opening the bank Thursday morning when three men wearing rubber masks and brandishing handguns barged in and demanded cash, police said, triggering a manhunt across the island of Martha’s Vineyard and on Cape Cod.
Yet after a chaotic day that included police swarming a hotel in Falmouth on information the robbers were inside, theywere still at large as ofThursday night, and residents and schoolchildren on both sides of Vineyard Sound remained rattled.
How could bank robbers have escaped an island? residents wondered. Or if they hadn’t yet left, where are they hiding?
For a time, it appeared that the police had the suspects cornered. Midday on Thursday, Falmouth police officers, FBI agents, and state troopers had surrounded a Holiday Inn in Falmouth. Jones Road, a busy street where the Holiday Inn is located, was closed off, and at one point a black armored vehicle was seen driving down it. Meanwhile, children from a nearby school were evacuated as state troopers wearing battle fatigues and brandishing rifles prepared to enter the hotel.
For a time, it appeared that the police had the suspects cornered. Midday on Thursday, Falmouth police officers, FBI agents, and state troopers had surrounded a Holiday Inn in Falmouth. Jones Road, a busy street where the Holiday Inn is located, was closed off, and at one point a black armored vehicle was seen driving down it. Meanwhile, children from a nearby school were evacuated as state troopers wearing battle fatigues and brandishing rifles prepared to enter the hotel.
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BRITTANY BOWKER 