Convicted murderer now working as a security guard arrest for bank robberies
Denver CO August 6 2023 A man who spent time in prison since the 1970s for murder is now back behind bars and is accused of robbing several banks and a restaurant.
From May through July, security cameras captured a man identified in court documents as Flozell Beasley dressed in a green vest and hard hat robbing four banks and a downtown taco shop. Investigators eventually arrested Beasley late last month.
9NEWS learned Beasley was employed as a security guard for an Aurora based company called American Eagle Protective Services. A woman who answered the phone and claimed to be the security company owner admitted to 9NEWS she didn’t know Beasley served 42 years in prison for murder.
Patricia Johnson acknowledged Beasley worked for her company and also admitted she didn’t do a background check. She said her husband, who owned and operated the company, recently passed away.
Last year, Denverite interviewed Beasley and several other people about life in the wake of the slowing COVID pandemic. In that piece, Beasley is seen in a photograph wearing a “Security” hat and is identified as a contractor conducting security outside of a Denver Wells Fargo.
“I would not have hired him for that position,” said Don Coker, a bank security consultant who has testified in more than 700 cases since 1989.
Coker said the slow economy may be contributing to more bank robberies and believed Beasley may be desperate for money, like many other bank robbers.
Crime stats from the FBI reveal Colorado led the nation at 191 bank robberies in 2021, followed by 180 in California and 139 in Arizona. Numbers for 2022 have not been released yet and an FBI spokeswoman said crime stats may not include bank robberies handled by local authorities.
“A person who has been in prison for 40 years and comes out at that age is probably not going to have much in the way of job skills and success in the job market,” Coker said of Beasley’s criminal case.
9NEWS obtained records from the state’s prison system that show Beasley served 42 years in prison on a 1975 conviction for fatally shooting someone during a robbery.
Records show he was paroled from prison in 2018 and remained on parole until January of this year. According to court documents and allegations by investigators, Beasley hit his first bank a few months later in May.
