A 74-year-old Mount Joy man will serve at least 19½ years in prison for stabbing an employee during a 2016 bank robbery in Elizabethtown.
Harvey C. Fitz pleaded guilty in Lancaster County Court to felony robbery and aggravated assault and related counts regarding the Dec. 14, 2016, incident at M&T Bank on South Market Street.
Lancaster County Judge Howard Knisely recently sentenced Fitz to 19½ to 54 years in prison.
Fitz stabbed a female employee, the blade barely missing her liver, during the robbery, according to facts presented by Assistant District Attorney Andrew T. LeFever.
Fitz initially presented a note to employees, which stated:
“This is a bank robbery Get an overdraft or an override and know (sic) one will get hurt! If not I will kill someone Don't take more than 1 min and 30 sec. more than that and someone gets killed killed”
Fitz, wearing a mask and camouflage pants, fled with a bag of money. Northwest Regional police Detective Frank Ember and Mount Joy police Detective Kyle Hosking stopped Fitz in his Jeep Cherokee a few minutes later, not far from the bank.
Inside the Jeep was a bag of money and a straight-blade fillet knife.
Fitz admitted to robbing the bank.
Elizabethtown police Officer Matthew Shuey filed charges.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright