[naviga:img class="img-responsive" src="/Assets/news2015/ShawnMTwomey.JPG" alt="Shawn M. Twomey"/]

Shawn M. Twomey Courtesy the Connecticut State Police

East Lyme — The affidavit for a man arrested in the Feb. 14, 2015, robbery of a Citizen's Bank alleges the suspect dragged a woman trying to run away and pointed a weapon at her and bank employees as he demanded cash.

According to a police affidavit, Shawn M. Twomey, 43, of 106 Summit St., Apt. 3, was driven by an individual and a mutual friend to the Flander's Plaza strip mall.

Twomey said he was picking up money he was owed, the driver claimed.

Twomey allegedly entered the Citizen's Bank, 15 Chesterfield Road, and forced a teller into the vault with what appeared to witnesses to be a silver handgun.

A silver handgun-shaped lighter, along with other items from the robbery, later was recovered from a Dumpster.

A woman customer attempting to leave with her 6-year-old daughter was chased by Twomey and dragged into the vault of the bank, causing bruising to her arm, according to the affidavit.

Twomey later allegedly told the driver of the vehicle that he also pointed the weapon, which he said was a lighter, at the 6-year-old girl, who ran and hid under a desk in an office.

Police say Twomey left the bank with $25,108. The case was assigned to Eastern District Major Crime.

Waterford Police located an abandoned Lexus on Way Hill Road and Route 85 that had been owned by Twomey, and noted his previous arrest for robbery.

East Lyme police later responded to a false alarm at a home where police spotted a vehicle matching one recorded on surveillance video near the bank and questioned the owner.

The owner of the vehicle said he planned to sell another car he owned — the one police later identified as the abandoned Lexus — and had made arrangements to follow Twomey and his friend from Norwich to East Lyme.

Twomey and his friend got a ride with the owner, and after stopping at Flander's Plaza strip mall, Twomey got back into the vehicle and began counting money, according to the police affidavit.

The man said he drove Twomey and his friend to Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, dropping them off at the departure gate where police say surveillance footage captured them getting a taxi.

Twomey was taken into custody in New York shortly after the incident, extradited and charged April 1 with first-degree robbery, first-degree larceny, risk of injury to a minor, third-degree assault, threatening and first-degree unlawful restraint.

He was being held on $500,000 bond.

n.lynch@theday.com