The man that authorities suspected of robbing a Dowagiac credit union at gunpoint last month was killed during a confrontation with Indiana law enforcement earlier this month, according to release from the Dowagiac Police Department.

The suspect in question, Don Oneal Smith, 29, was shot and killed by Indiana police officers on April 10, after fleeing into the state with a hostage taken during an armed robbery in Illinois. Smith was suspected by local authorities of also committing the armed robbery that took place on March 19 at the Dowagiac Area Federal Credit Union, following a several week into the incident by a number of law enforcement agencies.

The bank robbery occurred at approximately 10:23 a.m. that morning, when a single person held up a teller with a handgun before jumping over the counter and taking an undisclosed amount a money. The subject then fled from the scene of the crime.

Assisting Dowagiac police with the investigation were officers with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, and Pokagon Tribal Police; they were later assisted by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force out of Berrien County. Both local and federal investigators began sharing information with other area agencies, with the task force eventually identifying Smith as person of interest.

Shortly after identifying Smith as a suspect, Dowagiac officers were contacted by law enforcement officials with the Indiana State Police and Watseka Illinois Police Department, who informed the department that Smith was a suspect in an armed robbery that took place in Watseka. During the course of that of robbery, Smith had taken a hostage with him, fleeing from the location into Indiana, stealing a vehicle and robbing another business in the process. Smith was eventually tracked down and shot in an ensuing confrontation with Indiana police; his hostage had fled to safety.

Eyewitnesses to the March 19 incident positively identified both Smith and the vehicle he fled the Dowagiac scene in, which was sized by Watseka police following the incident in April. Smith was also linked the Dowagiac robbery after several pieces of evidence from the crime scene were matched with the man following an analysis from the Michigan State Police crime lab, who sent a report to Dowagiac authorities on April 24.

The Indiana Department Of Corrections website shows Smith had been convicted and sentenced for rape and robbery charges in early 2005.

No other suspects in the Dowagiac Area Federal Credit Union armed robbery are known or suspected at this time.  Police still ask that anyone with further information about the March robbery contract police at (269) 782-9743.