A Scranton man faces up to 50 years in state prison after pleading guilty on Thursday to robbing a bank at gunpoint and threatening to shoot police officers after he holed up in a Moosic motel room.
Appearing in shackles before Lackawanna County Judge Vito P. Geroulo , Shane Savage told the judge he understood his plea to two felony charges, bank robbery and aggravated assault, and four misdemeanor grade terroristic threats offenses exposed him to a long stay in state prison.
"I made the deal," said the 27-year-old, who is incarcerated at the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $400,000 bail.
What brought him there began on Feb. 13, when he walked into a Wells Fargo bank branch at Meadow Avenue and River Street, flashed a handgun at a bank teller and demanded cash. He fled in a black Ford Taurus with an undisclosed amount of money.
Before robbing the bank, Mr. Savage was a fugitive wanted by the state Board of Probation and Parole after he absconded in January while on parole for an assault charge.
Within an hour of pulling off the bank heist, police identified Mr. Savage as their suspect. They tracked him to the Moosic Motor Inn on Birney Avenue, which sparked a roughly four-hour standoff.
Mr. Savage threatened to shoot them and refused to leave his room. He eventually surrendered, and did not have a gun in the motel room. Police recovered the gun used in the bank robbery in Mr. Savage's vehicle, Mr. Scanlon said.
Court officials will conduct a pre-sentence investigation first before Mr. Savage is sentenced.
A sentencing date was not announced.
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