Former Spokane Man Held In Vancouver Bank Robbery

A former Spokane man is accused of acting as the getaway driver who fled in a hail of police bullets that left two friends dead after a bombing and bank robbery in Vancouver, Wash.

Ronald Jay Bianchi, 25, was arrested three hours after Friday’s shootout with Vancouver police, but his identity wasn’t released until Monday.

No officers were hurt in the shootout, and neither was Bianchi.

He moved to southeast Washington after being convicted in Spokane in November 1994 of stealing a Camaro, the same kind of car that was involved in the Portland crimes.

He is being held in the Clark County Jail on three counts of attempted murder and one count of bank robbery.

Investigators are attempting to determine if Bianchi is related to Kenneth Bianchi, the notorious Hillside strangler.

They’re also checking to see if the trio may be responsible for a similar bombing and bank robbery last summer in Damascus, Ore., just south of Portland.

Noting similarities to robberies and bombings in Spokane, investigators currently have nothing linking the suspects to any militia or white supremacy groups, said Lt. Janet Thiessen of the Vancouver Police Department.

Ronald Bianchi is accused of driving a stolen late-model Mustang that sped from the scene of a robbery at a Seafirst Bank Friday in Vancouver. Two other stolen cars, a Camaro and a Chrysler, also are tied to the robbery, authorities said.

The Seafirst robbery occurred shortly after an earlier holdup at a Wells Fargo Bank in the Vancouver Mall and a pipe-bombing near a Kmart store.

Vancouver police said they are not sure the two bank holdups were committed by the same robbers.

After the Seafirst robbery, police gave chase before the suspects’ car ran off the road and hit a tree in Vancouver.

An unexploded pipe bomb was found in the stolen Mustang that the three men were using, Thiessen said.

An assault rifle and two shotguns were among weapons found in the car.

“It is believed that Bianchi was the driver,” Thiessen said.

The driver fled into nearby woods while his two accomplices exchanged gunfire with officers.

Police began an extensive search in the neighborhood but didn’t locate Bianchi for three hours, until a suspicious, shirtless man was spotted running near Fort Vancouver High School.

The man, carrying a rolled-up black shirt, had fresh injuries on his forehead, nose and eyes. He said his injuries were from a fight with another man, police reported.

He was taken to jail after a computer check showed Bianchi was wanted on a bench warrant issued in Spokane.

A subsequent investigation tied Bianchi to the robbery, police said.

Michael Judson Brock, 24, of Vancouver, and Aaron Ahern, 25, whose hometown wasn’t known, died in the brief gunbattle.

Vancouver police said Brock and Bianchi apparently were roommates for a time, but little else is known about them.

On Monday, Vancouver detectives arrested Bianchi’s girlfriend, Rachel S. Barnes, 22, of Washougal, Wash. She was booked into jail on a charge of complicity in the robbery.

Barnes is believed to have helped plan the Seafirst robbery but apparently wasn’t a participant, Thiessen said.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine issued a bench warrant for Bianchi’s arrest Oct. 1 after Bianchi failed to show up at a Sept. 26 court hearing in Spokane.

Bianchi was ordered to appear but failed to show up to answer why he was not making court-ordered $25-a-month restitution payments.

He was ordered to pay $1,141 restitution for damage to a 1985 Camaro he stole from a student at Whitworth College. He made only one payment, court files show.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COUNTS Ronald Jay Bianchi is being held in the Clark County Jail on three counts of attempted murder and one count of bank robbery.