LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police say a 49-year-old twice-convicted bank robber who died exchanging gunfire with police while trying to flee a casino robbery was responsible for a similar heist in November at the same Las Vegas Strip resort.
Clark County Assistant Sheriff Charles Hank showed side-by-side photos Monday of Michael Charles Cohen wearing a bandage on his face, glasses and a black knit cap in robberies Friday and last November at the Bellagio resort.
Cohen was fatally shot by police after trying to carjack a motorist and then shooting a police officer in his bulletproof vest in a hotel valet parking area.
The officer escaped serious injury. His name was not made public.
Hank says Cohen was previously convicted of bank robberies in Nevada in 1999 and 2008.
In November, police say a car owner-turned-carjacking victim managed to free himself from the trunk of a getaway car while Cohen was inside the Bellagio robbing a poker room cashier.