A 36-year-old Gardner man and two accomplices have been arrested in connection with a bank robbery in Northampton on College Street yesterday morning that forced area schools to shut down for a short time, police said.

Jamie Comeau was apprehended by police in Belchertown a short time after the robbery – which occurred at the Northampton Cooperative Bank at 390 College St. about 11:50 a.m. yesterday – and charged with unarmed robbery. Jason Comeau, 37, of Athol, and Kimberly Choquette, 29, also of Athol, were both identified as accomplices to the robbery and were arrested in the same vehicle as Jamie Comeau in Belchertown, each charged with unarmed robbery, according to a press release issued by Amherst Police Lt. Ron Young yesterday.

Jamie Comeau reportedly issued a note to a teller demanding an undisclosed amount of money and then fled in a vehicle, according to the release.

Following the robbery, all public schools in Amherst were placed on lockdown, according to a posting on the schools’ website. The schools were shutdown at noon and then opened back up at 12:35 p.m., according to the post.

And, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, during the police’s attempts to apprehend the suspects, an unmarked police car being driven by Young hit a tree on Belchertown Road in an attempt to avoid a head-on collision with another vehicle driving on the road. Young, the Gazette reported, was not injured in the incident.

Attempts by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian to reach Young or a representative from the College Street branch of Northampton Cooperative bank were unsuccessful last night.

The investigation into the robbery, though, is ongoing, according to the release. All three of the people apprehended yesterday are slated to appear in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown this morning to formally face the charges. Since their apprehension yesterday, each of them has been held at the Hampshire County House of Corrections in Northampton in place of $25,000 bail, according to the release.

–         Collegian News Staff