Christopher Larue of Lansdale was sentenced to 25 years in prison for committing a bank robbery in Perkasie and then attempting to kill a Pennsylvania state trooper in Montgomery County in October 2020. (Credit: Crimewatch)
A Montgomery County man who robbed a Perkasie bank at gunpoint and subsequently tried to kill a state trooper a year-and-a-half ago was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday.
In a news release, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office announced that 44-year-old Christopher Larue of Lansdale will also be on five years of supervised release after he serves his prison sentence, handed down five months after he pleaded guilty to one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of armed bank robbery.
He was also ordered to pay a $7,500 fine by U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter.
According to the version of events provided by the DA’s office, Larue was a recently-released bank robber on supervised release when he entered the QNB Bank at 607 W. Chestnut Street in Perkasie on the morning of Oct. 19, 2020 and demanded money from bank employees who were just arriving for work.
The DA’s office said Larue was wearing dark clothing and a black mask, and brandished a gun as he robbed the bank.
What Larue apparently didn’t know was that a GPS tracking device was hidden inside part of the $11,000 he had stolen, which enabled state police to track him to his job at a work site in Conshohocken.
When troopers arrived and tried to arrest him, Larue pointed a gun at one officer’s head and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired and police were then able to handcuff him.
In and around the defendant’s work locker, investigators said they found the stolen cash, additional ammunition and the clothing and mask Larue had worn during the robbery, the news release said.
“This sentencing is especially poignant during a week when we have lost two Pennsylvania State troopers who were bravely executing their duty in the face of extreme danger,” said U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams, referring to the deaths of Trooper Martin F. Mack III, 33, and Trooper Branden T. Sisca, 29, who along with a pedestrian were struck and killed by a driver earlier this week on I-95 in Philadelphia.
“In this case, the defendant acted with complete disregard and callousness for the lives of the Pennsylvania State troopers and the bank employees who he threatened with a firearm,” Williams said. “But for a misfired gun, the outcome could have been yet another tragic loss of life.”
“Christopher Larue aimed a loaded gun at a state trooper’s head, asked him if he wanted to die that day and repeatedly pulled the trigger,” added Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division, which investigated the case. “It was very nearly a tragedy, but thankfully the weapon didn’t fire. That was just after Larue had held three bank employees at gunpoint during a robbery–and that was after a previous string of bank robberies for which he’d served time.”
The news release noted that Larue previously served 12 years in federal prison in connection with his 2009 conviction for committing five additional bank robberies.
The case was also investigated by the Perkasie Borough Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police with assistance from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle L. Morgan.
