The man who held up a Lawrence bank at gunpoint Wednesday appears similar to a man or men caught on camera in two Lawrence bank robberies earlier this year, police say.

Police said Thursday they didn’t have enough information to conclusively say whether the same man committed all three robberies, but the similarities are striking:

• In all three robberies — Feb. 7 at Central National Bank, 711 Wakarusa Drive; June 9 at Douglas County Bank, 711 W. 23rd St., and Wednesday at University National Bank, 1400 Kasold Drive — the man brandished a handgun and fled on foot.
• All three robberies happened before noon at banks in shopping centers near residential areas.
• In all three cases, the robber was wearing a hat and sunglasses and was described by witnesses as a white male possibly in his 20s and between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. In the Douglas County Bank and University National Bank robberies, witnesses described the robber as having a slender build. A description provided for Thursday’s Journal-World incorrectly stated that he was heavyset.

In the robbery at Douglas County Bank, the man appeared to have several days’ growth of facial hair.

“We are investigating whether or not they could be related because they obviously appear similar,” said Sgt. Mike Pattrick, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman.

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On Wednesday, police fanned out into a nearby residential area but weren’t able to find the man. Similar searches happened after each of the two previous robberies, but police never identified a suspect.

Hours after the Wednesday robbery, FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said she hadn’t received any indication that it was related to any other robberies.

Thursday, however, she said she’d been made aware of the similarities. But Patton stopped short of saying the FBI believes the three robberies are all related.

“We will look at those to see if there’s any correlation,” she said. “I don’t have anything concrete to make that statement at this point.”

Officials from Douglas County Bank and University National Bank declined to speculate about whether the same person could have done all the robberies.

“It’s been so long ago for us that I really couldn’t say,” said Pat Slabaugh, executive vice president of Douglas County Bank. “I’m leaving that up to the Police Department.”

A Jan. 13 heist at Midwest Regional Credit Union, 1015 W. Sixth St., is one of the few recent bank robberies in Lawrence that has been solved. Last month Quentin Wayne Kivitter, 29, Osage City, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for that robbery and others in Pomona, Edgerton, Silver Lake and Olpe.

The Kansas Bankers’ Assn. is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest in Wednesday’s robbery. Police are asking anyone with information about any of the crimes to call the Crime Stoppers hot line at 842-TIPS.

Pictures from three area bank robberies -- from top, Feb. 7 at Central National Bank, 711 Wakarusa Drive; June 9 at Douglas County Bank, 711 W. 23rd St., and Wednesday at University National Bank, 1400 Kasold Drive -- show similar suspects. In all three cases, the man brandished a handgun, fled on foot, wore a hat and sunglasses and was described by witnesses as possibly in his 20s and either 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall.