LMPD :: Louisville Metro Police Department
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Man killed by deputies was sought in Tenn., Ohio for bank robberies

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A man shot and killed by two sheriff's deputies Tuesday morning was not the child support scofflaw they'd arrived to arrest.

Instead, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office had stumbled upon an alleged serial bank robber, wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for bank heists in two states.

A deputy went to the Bluegrass Mobile Home Park of Newburg Road just before 10 a.m. Tuesday with an arrest warrant for a man named Christopher Smolik. The warrant was issued by Trimble County on a charge of felony flagrant non-support.

But 53-year-old Albert William Keyes answered the door instead. He told Deputy Rick Wilkerson he wasn't the man they were looking for and they asked for identification. He went inside to retrieve it, police said, but instead of returning, he fled from the back door, jumped into his truck and peeled out of the trailer park.

Keyes had been living in the trailer less than two weeks, neighbors said. Smolik told television reporters he moved out six months ago.

Keyes had no identification on him. The coroner could find no next of kin. He had to be identified by running his fingerprints through a national database of known offenders, said Deputy Coroner Eddie Robinson.

The Louisville Metro Police Department said Keyes was a fugitive from Tennessee. He was wanted on a felony warrant for bank robbery. He has no criminal record in Jefferson County.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Memphis Division said he is wanted for two bank robberies, the first in Ohio and the second three weeks later in Tennessee.

Keyes is believed to have walked into a bank in West Carrollton, Ohio, on the morning of Feb. 7, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in federal court. He allegedly approached the teller and handed her a note, scrawled on pages torn out of a calendar: "No die packs both drawers make this easy," it allegedly said. He pulled a gun and pointed it at her, the document alleges. She handed him nearly $5,000, he said "thank you" and left.

Three weeks later, on Feb. 26, he allegedly executed a nearly-identical heist, only two states away in Dickson County, Tenn, according to court records. He walked into a bank in Burns, approached the teller and handed her a note, also written on a page torn from a calendar. "No die packs be quiet no one gets hurt," it allegedly read. He took nearly $8,000, again said "thank you" and left.

He climbed into a green Dodge truck after each heist. The truck's description matches the one he fled in Tuesday morning.

As he fled the trailer, Wilkerson called in a description of his truck and two other deputies - Ben Bryant and Larry Elery - spotted his truck a short distance away. They followed.

Keyes pulled into the parking lot of HD Supply White Cap Construction on the 4600 block of Poplar Level Road and the two deputies followed.

The sheriff's office says the man stepped out of his truck wielding a large knife. Both Bryant and Elery opened fired. Neither the sheriff's office nor the Louisville Metro Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, would say how many times the man was struck or where he was shot.

Deputy Coroner Eddie Robinson said he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds at 10:05 a.m.

Sheriff's Office Lt. Col. Carl Yates said he saw the knife on scene near the man's body, but he would not describe it.

Yates has not yet released the deputies' personnel files. The two deputies are on paid administrative leave.