A federal grand jury in Newport News returned an indictment Tuesday, charging a Hampton man with making multiple bomb threats in Hampton and Newport News to divert authorities so he can rob the Virginia Educators Credit Union.
According to allegations in the indictment, Oscar Von Alston II, 31, made a series of bomb threats to public facilities in both Hampton and Newport News including two courthouses, two hotels, and a YMCA.
During the evacuations of those locations where both local police and firemen were dispatched, Alston robbed the VECU at gunpoint. Alston was apprehended less than 20 minutes after the robbery with more than $22,000 from the VECU, federal prosecutors said.
Alston is charged with five counts of making a threat with explosives, five counts of false information and hoax, bank robbery, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
He faces a mandatory minimum of seven years and maximum of life in prison.
