Bearded Bandit arrested

Police have arrested the man known as the “Bearded Bandit.”

Kenneth Ellis is accused of robbing at least 11 banks – four of them on the Central Coast — between February and March. He is also accused of one attempted robbery and three casing incidents in several Northern California counties.

According to police, a citizen reported seeing a man Wednesday matching the description of the “Bearded Bandit” in a Safeway parking lot in Brentwood. Officers then found the suspect sitting in a parked car in a nearby neighborhood.

The suspect surrendered peacefully without incident. He was turned over to Concord Police Department investigators and later booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.