Marin Robbery Suspect Booked but Cops Still Mum on 'Cotton Ball' Link

A bank robbery suspect confirmed by NBC news to be a serial bank robber known as the “Cotton Ball Bandit” was arrested today after a weeklong stay in a local hospital, authorities said.

Christopher Jay Wootton, 60 of Larkspur, was arrested on suspicion of robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, San Rafael Police Department spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.

Wootton is being held on $2 million bail, Rohrbacher said. His first court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Wooten was shot at the end of a frantic Dec. 11 chase that ended outside Northgate Mall after he allegedly robbed a Bank of the West on 1313 Grant Avenue in Novato, Rohrbacher said.

Wooten spent a week at Marin General Hospital recovering from gunshot wounds he suffered after he allegedly pulled a gun on a Marin County sheriff’s deputy, Rohrbacher said.

The deputy, a seven-plus year veteran with the sheriff’s office, is on the standard paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting, Rohrbacher said.

The “Cotton Ball Bandit” – so named because of the pom-pom ball atop a brown knit hat with earflaps he wore during most of his robberies - was according to NBC news captured the day before the one-year anniversary of his first alleged heist (he’s suspected in the robbery of a Chase Bank at 401 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Greenbrae on Dec. 12 of last year).

Authorities have declined to finger Wooten as the serial robber who allegedly robbed 10 banks over a one-year period.

“Investigators are working on the link between the individual crimes and determining if they can be connected to Wootton,” Rohrbacher said in a prepared statement.

Multiple agencies including the FBI, which has issued a $2,500 reward for the serial robber’s capture, are involved in the investigation.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the San Rafael Police Department at (415) 485.3000. Tips can be made online through Silent Witness at www.srpd.org/tips.

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