By RUSS OLIVO

CUMBERLAND — An ex-convict who had been freed from the Adult Correctional Institutions only four days earlier robbed a Valley Falls bank Monday, then made an ill-fated attempt to escape from police by leaping into the Blackstone River, police said.

Desperately clutching a tree limb overhanging the riverbank, Alvin Murray was exhausted and struggling to stay afloat when Sgt. William Wilkie tossed him a life preserver and plucked him out, said Detective Capt. Richard Quinn.
Murray almost reached the other side of the river, where Central Falls police were waiting for him, but it didn’t look like he was going to make it, said Quinn.
“That’s when we decided to get the life preserver,” said Quinn. “He was getting tired. He was fatigued.  His clothes were all wet. He was bobbing up and down.”
Murray, 33, had been on the run for about 45 minutes after the robbery of the Sovereign Bank branch at 310 Broad St. when he surfaced less than a mile away, on Meeting Street, a dead end that runs along the Blackstone River, near the Central Falls line. Murray walked into the bank about 12:30 p.m., handed a teller a note indicating that he had a gun and demanded cash, Quinn said. The teller complied and Murray walked out of the bank with an undetermined amount of money.
Following the suspect’s rescue, however, there was no sign of the loot. Though he did not elaborate, Quinn said police searched the river and elsewhere, to no avail. “We looked for it,” he said. “We could not find it.”
In the moments after the heist, as police scoured the Valley Falls neighborhood looking for the perpetrator, Sgt. Wilkie spotted a man who looked like Murray near the railroad tracks behind High and Broad streets. But the suspect managed to elude police by hopscotching through some backyards in the area.
A short time later, Wilkie again saw the suspect walking near the Central Falls line and the officer began to approach him in his cruiser. When Murray saw the cruiser, he started to run.
Quinn said a retired veteran of the Cumberland police, Sgt. Albert Skeldon, happened to be driving through the area and noticed the man’s telltale reaction to the police cruiser. Skeldon stopped his car and joined in the pursuit, chasing Murray on foot to the edge of the river.
From the field investigation to the suspect’s capture and rescue with the help of Sgt. Skeldon, the whole operation was well coordinated, said Quinn.
“It all paid off,” he said, adding that Murray was “just lucky” that Sgt. Wilkie noticed how badly he was struggling in the water.
After police dragged Murray to safety, police were able to link him to the bank holdup through “certain evidence” and he was booked on one count of second-degree robbery, Quinn said. He was arraigned Tuesday in Sixth District Court, Providence, where he was ordered held at the ACI in lieu of bail pending a hearing.
Murray is also charged with being a violator, since he allegedly robbed the bank while on probation for a prior, unrelated conviction. According to court records, Murray has a criminal history dating back to 2004, mostly for misdemeanor offenses. In March, however, Murray pleaded no contest in Superior Court to third-offense domestic assault, a felony for which he was sentenced to five years, with one to serve and four suspended, with probation.
Quinn said Murray was released from the ACI just four days before he allegedly robbed the Sovereign Bank.
As a violator, Murray will be afforded a hearing to determine whether a judge may order him remanded to the ACI to serve all, or a portion, of his probationary sentence before any court action on the robbery charge.