A 45-year-old man is in police custody at Maine Medical Center in Portland for a medical condition unrelated to his arrest Tuesday on charges of bank robbery, police say.

Portland police arrested Howard Gribbin shortly after they say he robbed the Bank of America branch at 446 Forest Ave. at 2:46 p.m. Tuesday. Gribbin told a teller he had a gun then left with cash, getting a ride in a waiting taxi.

Police say they spotted him getting out of the cab on Weymouth Street. When they approached him he was uncooperative, at one point putting his hands in his pockets and saying he had a gun and that police should shoot him, police said.

Officers saw that he did not have a gun in his hand, and used a Taser to incapacitate him. The Taser had to be deployed twice because the first time it did not work, probably due to his heavy winter coat, police said.

He was not injured in the arrest.

Police also charged Gribbin with two warrants issued on behalf of South Portland police.

Gribbin is suspected of robbing the clerk at the service desk of the Hannaford supermarket on Philbrook Road, near the Maine Mall, at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The man left without getting any cash.

Police say he may have left in a U-Haul truck. They interviewed the person who rented the truck and was driving it, but it appears the driver may have given the robber a ride unwittingly, police said.

Police said surveillance video indicates that Gribbin is the same man who robbed the Shaw’s supermarket on Waterman Drive at 6 p.m. Monday.

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