Officers Trick Repeat Offender into Revealing Identity

Two Wauwatosa Police officers used a clever ruse to trap a career criminal into revealing his true identity last week, ending a string of thefts and putting him back behind bars.

It began pretty routinely Friday evening with a call from Macy's at Mayfair. Store and mall security had detained a man who had grabbed $697.50 worth of Polo shirts off a rack and headed for the exit.

A Macy's employee had spotted the act on camera and run downstairs to stop the thief, who battled with the employee and pushed him to the ground before dropping the shirts and trying to escape. But he was rounded up when another Macy's employee and a mall security officer showed up to help.

Two Tosa officers arrived to take over the case and asked the suspect's name, finding he had no identification. He said he was Travis Andre Swanigan. The officers ran a background check, and it came back with a criminal arrest history.

Swanigan was arrested for retail theft and taken to the Wauwatosa police station for processing. He was fingerprinted, but nothing came back – possibly due to scabs and scars on the suspect’s fingers, the police report noted.

The officers got Swanigan’s criminal history from the front desk, which revealed no prior theft convictions. He was again fingerprinted, then photographed and issued municipal citations for retail theft and criminal trespass.

Advised of his rights, Swanigan said he understood, and he was processed out. One of the officers began driving him to 76th Street and North Avenue to release him. But before they arrived, the officer's partner called to say he believed Swanigan was lying about his name and date of birth. He believed him to be a habitual criminal named Darnell Bankhead.

The officer in the squad car asked Swanigan if his name was really Darnell Bankhead. He said “No, I am Travis Swanigan.” Told he would be taken back to the station, he agreed but repeated, “My name really is Travis Swanigan.”

Back at the station, the officers pulled up a photo taken of Bankhead when he had been arrested in January and put it side by side with the one they had just taken. They were the same person.

In an interview room, one officer asked Swanigan several times for his real name. He continued to say his name was Travis Swanigan. Told he would be charged with obstructing of officer if he continued to deny he was Darnell Bankhead, he stuck to the story.

Meanwhile, the other officer had been digging further into the background of Bankhead. He took the interviewing officer aside and confidentially informed him that Bankhead was on parole for burglary.

Returning to the interview, that officer adopted a casual attitude. He bantered a bit and then asked "Swanigan" how much time he had left on parole.

 “Six months,” he said.

“But Swanigan, you’re not on parole," the officer replied, "Darnell Bankhead is on parole.”

The officer noted in his report that Bankhead "got a look on his face that indicated to me he had been caught in a lie."

So, the suspect was yet again fingerprinted and photographed and processed, this time as Darnell Bankhead, then put into a holding cell until he was picked up and taken to jail under the authority of the Department of Corrections — Parole and Probation.

Bankhead, it was learned, had successfully used the name Swanigan when he had been arrested March 19 for theft of $741.50 in merchandise at Boston Store, and also had an open retail theft case as Swanigan in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

So, thanks to some careful police work and a single, seemingly offhand question, a string of  thefts was stopped, and instead of a couple of municipal tickets and release with a worthless promise to appear, Darnell Bankhead, 41, of Milwaukee may be facing real time.

On Monday, Wauwatosa police were to ask the district attorney's office for state charges of theft, two counts of obstructing an officer and bail jumping.