Police officials arrived at Webster Bank on Elm Street Thursday afternoon after the bank’s officials reported a robbery.

According to a Friday email sent by New Haven Police Department spokesperson David Hartman, bank officials told the police that the suspect — identified as a black man, approximately six-feet tall and wearing thick-framed eyeglasses with grey sweatpants — approached a teller with a note that read, “Empty all the drawers or get shot.” The suspect did not display a weapon.

The teller then gave the suspect an unspecified amount of cash with a hidden pack of red dye. Following the robbery, the suspect fled to the corner of Orange and Elm Streets, where the dye pack exploded, staining his clothing and the cash.

Police followed the suspect to the New Haven County Courthouse at 121 Elm St., where detectives found dye on a fence they suspect he climbed. The police dog that was tracking the suspect lost his scent several blocks away from the courthouse, leading police to believe that he may have continued in a bus or other vehicle.

A bank in Waterbury experienced a similar robbery, Hartman added. Dectectives from the NHPD and Waterbury Police Department are collaborating on an investigation.

Webster Bank is located on 80 Elm St., less than half a mile from Old Campus.

SARAH BRULEY