Former Marine Reserve recounts stopping bank robbery | ‘Can I get him down?’

BATON ROUGE — May 8th was a perfectly normal morning for 25-year-old Brandon Searles. He briefly stepped away from his job with BREC’s Capitol Construction Division to head over to the Regions Bank on South Sherwood Forest.

It was around 10:00 a.m. when Searles walked into the bank. He was greeted by the same familiar faces he always sees when using that branch. While Regions isn’t Searles’ primary bank, he frequently uses Western Union there, so he’s familiar with the tellers and bank manager. 

While waiting his turn, Searles noticed some commotion between a teller and another customer, which caught everyone’s attention in the bank.

“We heard grumbling and fidgeting as if something was going on but no one really seemed worried about it. We thought it was another disgruntled customer,” Searles said.

After a few moments talking with the disgruntled customer, Searles said that the teller ran away from the man in a hurry.

“When he (bank robber) realized that he was the center of attention, he started waving his gun around and started moving erratically and yelling,” Searles said. “He was yelling, ‘Give me the money! Put it in the bag.’ Then he started yelling for the tellers to get away from the button, not to push it. But (bank employee) was slick and had already pushed the button. The branch manager was in one of the cubicles, so he pointed the gun towards them and told them to step away from the button.”

At that point, the robber set his eyes on Searles and the teller who was giving him money for his Western Union transaction.

“I guess he realized that I was in the middle of a transaction, so he saw the drawer open and figured that it would be an easy grab, so he shoved me out of the way to get to the teller that I was speaking with,” Searles said. 

In that moment, Searles wasn’t sure yet if he would do anything. Searles spent four years in the Marine Reserves and completed extensive Marine Combat Training (MCT), so he was prepared to act if the robber gave him an opportunity.

“My first reaction I had was out of all the times that this could have happened, why is this happening now?” Searles asked jokingly. “I’m on break. I gotta go back to work, but when he shoved me, I went into risk assessment mode. Can I get him down without giving him the chance to aim the gun towards me or anyone else? Can I do this without getting hurt? And I wasn’t too sure, but he gave me an opening and I took it.”

That opening came when the robber leaned over the bank counter to reach the money drawer. Searles said he noticed that the robber was leaning on top of his gun, making it difficult for the man to react if Searles attempted to take the weapon.

Searles reached around with his right hand and grabbed the gun while the man was still leaning over the counter.

“My first priority was getting that gun out of his hand, so I grabbed it and pulled it across his body and I reached around with my left arm to grab his torso and pretty much ended up body slamming him onto the ground and wrestled with him there until I could get the gun out of his hand.”

Once Searles had the gun, he tossed it across the lobby and instructed another bystander to pick it up in case the robber got loose somehow. 

“I didn’t want him getting the chance to get that gun back in his hands,” Searles said.

After holding the robber down for around 10 minutes, Baton Rouge Police Officers arrived and took the man into custody.

Quarles Harris, 51 is charged with armed robbery, unauthorized use of a moving vehicle, and simple battery for a previous warrant. 

Perhaps most strange is the fact that Quarles attempted to rob that same exact Regions branch in 2014. 

Court records confirm that Quarles was arrested in 2014 for robbery at the same bank. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that robbery and was released on May 24, 2024, almost a year before Thursday’s robbery.

Searles is also in the recruitment process with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

“When they realized that my name and application were already in the system, they went ballistic. They got happy. They were more excited than I was,” Searles said, noting that he’s hopeful this will help with his recruitment process.

“God don’t make know mistakes. He knew exactly where I needed to be that day so I’m thankful that he gave me the opportunity to be a blessing to those in the lobby and gave me the courage to stand up to do what I needed to do. 

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