Chappel, 25, charged with three counts of first-degree robbery and a single count of second-degree felony robbery, has a preliminary hearing set for Sept. 5.
Monday, he was arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail after police said they saw him sitting on the front porch of a home in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Pittsburgh police said they believe Chappel was the man wearing a bandanna who walked into the bank branch in Greenfield at about 10:40 a.m. Monday, threatened tellers with a gun, hopped over the counter and took cash from several of the tellers’ drawers.
The masked intruder then got into a car and drove away.
Police tracked the car’s license plate, relayed to them by an eyewitness, to the home of a woman identified as Chappel’s girlfriend, Pittsburgh newspapers and WPXI-TV, a Cox station, have reported.
Chappel wasn’t found there, but at a house two blocks away, police said. What connection he has to that second residence has not been immediately clear.
According to the university, Chappel played in 37 games during his four-year run as a defensive back. He graduated Pitt but was not selected in the 2010 NFL Draft.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported that according to court records, Brentwood police arrested Chappel in January 2011 on suspicion that he was driving under the influence of marijuana. Chappel was accepted into a program called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, which allows first-time offenders to have their charges withdrawn if they meet certain requirements.
Chappel’s family learned of his arrest from his girlfriend on Monday afternoon, according to his father, Jeff Hall. Hall told the Post-Gazette that a bank robbery did not seem characteristic of his son, who graduated from high school early, earned his bachelor’s degree and has been working as an insurance agent.
About the Author