New details emerge in Spokane bank robbery

Phone records show that the two suspects in a Wednesday morning bank robbery texted each other about “hitting” a bank and making a “withdrawal,” according to court documents.

Skyler L. Schultz, 23, is suspected of walking into the Inland Northwest Bank at Ruby Street and Ermina Avenue in Spokane around 11 a.m. Wednesday wearing dark clothing and a motorcycle helmet. One of the bank tellers thought he looked so suspicious that she hit her holdup alarm before the man even approached the counter to demand money, according to court documents.

A witness said the robber got into a black SUV with Idaho plates driven by another man. Police have arrested Christopher A. Horn, 29, on suspicion of being the getaway driver. Both men are facing charges of first-degree robbery.

The SUV was later found abandoned a mile away on Morton Street, which led police to Schultz and Horn. When Schultz was contacted he was wearing the same clothes shown in the bank’s surveillance video and there was a motorcycle helmet in the back seat of the SUV found on Morton, according to court documents.

Schultz was ordered held in the Spokane County Jail on $150,000 bond during a brief court appearance Thursday. Bond for Horn was set at $100,000.

Horn was accused of robbing the Washington State Employees Credit Union on Northwest Boulevard in 2011. The charges were dropped in 2012 due to lack of evidence. The identification of Horn as the suspect in that case was based on information from a confidential informant, and two of the three bank employees who witnessed the crime could not pick Horn out of a photo lineup.