UA student arrested on robbery charges

Pima County Sheriff's deputies arrested Anthony L. Pellegrini, 19, a resident of Corleone Apartments, 1330 N. Park Ave., on three counts of armed robbery about 11 p.m. He was booked into Pima County Jail.

Sgt. Leonard Pratt, a spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, said the department is still investigating the robberies and it believes Pellegrini was working with two accomplices.

The accomplices have not yet been arrested, Pratt said.

The Sheriff's Department reported finding at least one weapon that may have been used in the robberies while serving warrants at Pellegrini's apartment and on two vehicles at the apartments.

Pellegrini was allegedly involved in robberies at two Bank One branches, 4660 E. Sunrise Drive and 4398 N. Campbell Ave., and a Bank of America at 6401 N. Campbell Ave.

Pratt said the three bank robberies were similar in nature.

The latest robbery was Friday about 2:45 p.m. at the Bank One on Sunrise Drive.

The Sheriff's Department reported that a masked person with a shotgun attempted to rob a customer coming out of the bank. The customer refused to give up the money and ran off. The masked person then entered the bank and took an unknown amount of money from the teller, according to the department.

The masked person then left the bank and got into a blue Trans Am or Camaro-type car driven by a second person, with a third person possibly in the vehicle, the Sheriff's Department reported.

Pratt said the Sheriff's Department and the Tucson Police Department have coordinated their investigations into the recent increase in Tucson-area bank robberies.

"Bank robberies, in the past, have been unique, but now we have seen an alarming trend in the increase in bank robberies in the Tucson area," Pratt said.

Pratt said the Sheriff's Department is investigating its "ninth or 10th" bank robbery. He said Pellegrini's is the third major arrest in connection with a bank robbery.

The University of Arizona Police Department confiscated a 9mm handgun from Pellegrini April 8 at his apartment and referred him to the Dean of Students Diversion Program for having a weapon in a weapons-free zone.

University police cited Pellegrini on a charge of false information to law enforcement April 9 after he asked for the weapon back but police discovered the gun was not owned by the same person Pellegrini told police the day before.

Pratt would not say what type of weapon the Sheriff's Department recovered Friday.