“We sent an investigator there to work with the FBI,” Temple police spokesman Sgt. Allen Teston said.

The second robbery happened at the Extraco Bank at 1003 E. Highway 190 at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

In a press release issued by the Copperas Cove Police Department, spokesman Lt. Daniel Austin said both robberies might be related.

“Police believe that the suspect that committed this robbery resembles the suspect that robbed the Guaranty Bank in the 1300 block of South 31st Street, Temple, on Dec. 20, 2007,” Austin said in his press release.

In both cases, the robbery was committed shortly before 9:30 a.m. by a slender black man, between 6-foot and 6-foot-4-inches tall, wearing dark coveralls and carrying a silver-colored handgun.

Investigators said a black male wearing dark clothing entered the Copperas Cove bank, approached a teller, produced a silver-colored handgun and demanded money. After receiving an undetermined amount of cash, the suspect left the bank and headed east on foot.

Coincidentally, the Temple Police Department issued a press release Wednesday afternoon asking for the public’s help in finding the suspect wanted in the Dec. 20 armed robbery.

Teston said then that based on the suspect’s familiarity with the area, he believed the suspect was close by.

“They tend to not go too far from home,” Teston said.

Meanwhile, the investigation is ongoing and is being conducted by Copperas Cove police, Temple police and the FBI.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Temple police at (254) 298-5500 or the Copperas Cove police at (254) 547-4272.