Manchester Man Pleads Guilty to Bank Robbery

          CONCORD - Kenneth Rawson, 34, of Manchester, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to committing a bank robbery, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today. 

          According to court documents and statements made in court, on October 27, 2018, Rawson entered the Citizens Bank on Elm Street in Manchester, New Hampshire and demanded money from the teller.  Rawson claimed that he had a bomb on him at the time.  Rawson was apprehended later that day and admitted that he had robbed the bank.

          Rawson is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23, 2020.

          “Bank robberies are violent crimes that put bank employees, customers, and members of the public at risk,” said U.S. Attorney Murray.  “In order to protect the public from violent crime, we will work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute those who commit bank robberies in the Granite State.  I am grateful to the Manchester Police and the FBI for their efforts to ensure that this defendant was brought to justice.”

          "Kenneth Rawson has twice now accepted responsibility for his actions – first, by telling officers, ‘I robbed a bank,’ as they pursued him from the scene of the crime, and again today before a federal judge. But words alone aren’t sufficient to remedy his claim to a defenseless teller that he was strapped to a bomb at the time of the holdup,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “In addition to bank robbery, Rawson is responsible for creating an environment of fear in a place of business, where bystanders could have been hurt, or worse. For that, it’s the court’s punishment that needs to speak loud and clear.”

          This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manchester Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Krasinski.