Who sprayed Bremerton woman in face in attempted robbery?

SEATTLE -- A Bremerton woman sprayed with mace or pepper spray during an attempted robbery at the Kitsap Bank on Marine View Drive says her attacker must have been desperate.

Police sketch of the suspect in the attempted robbery of a woman at a bank in Bremerton June 1.

Kayleigh Drouin was making the bank drop June 1 for the business where she works when she noticed she was being watched.  Video surveillance shows a guy lurking nearby, waiting to strike.

“I reacted by shoving what I had into the drop box," she said. "And before I knew it, he was on me."

The man desperately tried to grab the deposit, but with no luck.

“I couldn't drive home afterwards," Drouin says. "I ended having to call someone to come pick up me and my vehicle.”

When detectives watched the bank security video, they found something interesting. Police say a man who looks very similar tried to fog up the camera lens two weeks earlier.

Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan says the man “looks like he must have seen this in a 'Mission Impossible' movie or something, and he's spraying one of the surveillance cameras, apparently trying to obscure it, so there might be a lot of premeditation or planning that went into this attempted robbery.”

Detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect shown in a sketch they’ve created.  He’s Hispanic or Middle Eastern, in his 30s or 40s, 5-foot-3, with a heavy build. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt.

Strachan says, “This is a serious incident. If you think about the fact that somebody`s getting pepper sprayed or maced. If that was my daughter or my sister, I`d be very, very angry. This is a very personal crime.  This is a person who badly needs to go to jail, and we think someone can help, because someone knows who this person is.”

Call Bremerton police at (360) 473-5480 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS if you have any information on the identity of the suspect.  All calls are confidential and there is a cash reward for information leading to an arrest.

Drouin says she no longer does the bank drops for her work but is doing ok.  “It’s not like I was hurt too bad or anything like that, and Bremerton police responded pretty fast, which is good. It could’ve been worse.”