School Resource Officer Helps Capture Grants Pass Bank Robbery Suspect

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (Mar. 6, 2026) — A woman was arrested less than an hour after a reported bank robbery Friday afternoon in Grants Pass, police said.

Officers with the Grants Pass Police Department responded at about 12:26 p.m. to a report of a robbery at People’s Bank on Northeast Seventh Street. Patrol officers arrived at the bank shortly after the call and began investigating.

Because of the seriousness of the crime, detectives with the department’s Major Crime Unit were called in to assist with the investigation, police said.

Following the initial investigation by detectives and patrol officers, authorities identified the suspect as Renee Freitas, 58.

Less than 45 minutes after the robbery was reported, a school resource officer with the Grants Pass Police Department located Freitas near the Grants Pass Shopping Center and took her into custody, police said.

Freitas was lodged in the Josephine County Jail on charges of second-degree robbery, two counts of menacing, unlawful use of a weapon and first-degree theft.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified of the arrest.

All suspects are believed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law