Accused accomplice in attempted bank robbery asks for donations for her, husband's defense

TACOMA – There are strange new details in the case against an alleged husband and wife bank robbery team.

The husband was shot twice by a guard at a Lakewood bank on Monday as he was allegedly prepared to rob it. He is now in a hospital recovering from his wounds.

And as police hunted for his wife, the accused getaway driver, she made an unusual plea to strangers online.

Brittney Winston, 26, appeared in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday.

Police say she acted as the getaway driver when her husband, 27-year-old Michael David Winston, confronted an armored truck guard with a gun inside the Bank of America. That’s when cops say the guard shot at Winston multiple times, hitting him in the face and leg.



Winston ran to a waiting car driven by his wife, according to police.

“She had to get out and actually help him get into the car, he was having so much trouble he was hit a couple times,” said Lt. Chris Lawler of the Lakewood Police Department.

Brittney later drove her husband to a hospital, but cops say she then ditched the getaway car in a church parking lot only less than a mile from her home.

For two days, cops searched for Brittney – and while they searched she launched an online plea for money on the Fundly website. She claimed police racially profiled her husband and that the guard tried to murder him.

But that’s not all. Brittney posted four separate accounts asking for more than $200,000 to help her family fight the charges.

She also said that her husband is an Army veteran, but JBLM officials said he only served just over a year before they kicked him out for misconduct.

So far, Brittney’s online account has raised less than $100. Her husband is still at the hospital, where he is under police guard.

Brittney is being held in jail on $500,000 bail while family members are watching their kids.