The man police believe robbed a bank at gunpoint Friday is being investigated for links to other armed robberies in the city in recent months, police Chief Walter Armstrong said Monday.

Christopher Marcel Johnson, 25, who has lived in city motels for a month after previously staying with relatives on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was charged Monday with robbing Trustmark Bank at 1020 Mission 66 Friday morning.

Municipal Judge Nancy Thomas ordered Johnson held without bond, and he was taken to Issaquena County Jail. In addition, Johnson faces revocation of his probation through the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Vicksburg police Lt. Bobby Stewart said today.

Johnson was sentenced Sept. 24, 2004, to serve five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the 2003 armed robbery of a local convenience store, said Brenda Theriot of the District Attorney’s Office.

It was unclear how much of the five-year sentence he served or when he was released.

Armstrong said police are investigating Johnson’s possible links to several recent unsolved crimes. They include robberies of a local liquor store and hotel as well as two armed robberies of the Sonic Drive-In at 3101 Halls Ferry Road on Aug. 6 and Sept. 21, Armstrong said.

Police arrested a suspect Thursday in the Sonic heists, Willie Lee Myles, 26, 2008 Military Ave., but Stewart said others might have been involved.

“We are still following leads in those robberies,” the lieutenant said today. “We have some information to run down to see if (Johnson) possibly was connected to or had any role in them.”

Motel 6 at 4127 N. Frontage Road reported Sept. 18 that a man wearing a stocking mask brandished a handgun and took about $390, Stewart said. Also, the Liquor Store, 2080 S. Frontage Road was robbed at gunpoint Sept. 14 by two black males wearing red masks, employees said.

An attempted robbery at Shipley Donuts was reported Aug. 12, and a man getting out of his car on Elizabeth Circle Aug. 30 reported that he was robbed at gunpoint by two men wearing stockings over their faces.

Friday’s robbery occurred just after 10 a.m. A witness described a man running with something that looked like a lighted flare, which police believe was the bank’s security dye pack exploding.

Johnson was arrested at about 4 Saturday afternoon when police spotted a car matching a description given by witnesses after the bank robbery.

A man believed to be Johnson had visited three Vicksburg casinos, DiamondJacks, Ameristar and Rainbow, all of which reported a man matching his description had passed money covered in red security dye.

In addition, casino surveillance videos showed Johnson driving a 1997 Plymouth Breeze that matched the description a witness provided after the robbery.