LEELANAU COUNTY, MI - A man reported an active school shooting and other emergencies as diversions before he robbed Northern Michigan banks at gunpoint, the FBI said.

In one instance, he allegedly threatened bank workers with a hand grenade.

William Francis Minore, 70, is named in a federal criminal complaint alleging he robbed the Huntington Bank in Empire on Sept. 7, 2016, and Honor State Bank in Lake Ann on April 22, 2015, and Dec. 28, 2015.

FBI special agent Larry Stewart Jr. said many police agencies were involved in the investigation, which originally led to charges in state court.

The robber used a silver .38-caliber revolver in each of the holdups, FBI special agent Larry Stewart Jr. wrote in the complaint. Minore had registered a .38-caliber revolver.

In the holdup at Huntington Bank in Empire, the robber allegedly called 911 to report that "a man entered a school and shot his daughter, is shooting other people, and the call abruptly ends," Stewart wrote.

A second call to 911 said that a man wearing a ski mask had just gone into a Lake Ann bank.

Witnesses recognized Minore's voice on those calls and others, the FBI said.

"A chorus of people familiar with Minore identified the voice as his in the Huntington Bank diversionary calls, including bank employees, land contract vendees who were purchasing Minore's property, Minore's sister, the mother of Minore's children, Minore's daughter, and Minore's co-worker," Stewart wrote.

About 30 minutes before the Huntington holdup, Minore was recorded on a surveillance camera at Art's Tavern in Glen Arbor as he walked around the parking lot, looking at cars. Wearing black gloves, he got into a Kia Soul and drove off.

Another video, at an automated teller machine, showed a Kia Soul - which matched the description of the stolen vehicle - coming into town before the holdup, and leaving toward Glen Lake afterward, the FBI said.

Faint tire impressions were consisted with the stolen vehicle's tires.

Police also linked Minore to the 2015 holdups.

"Like the Huntington Bank robbery, the Honor State Bank robberies involved a man wearing a ski mask who took over the entire bank, neutralized personnel, and accessed monies, which were held in the vault or safe as opposed to merely a teller's drawer," Stewart wrote.

He said the robber had a silver pistol, with a black grip, in each holdup, and also brought a soft black bag.

Stewart said diversionary calls were placed by someone with a "burner" or disposable phone. The calls ended abruptly.

Before the April 22, 2015, robbery at Honor State Bank, three diversionary calls were made to dispatchers in three counties, the FBI said.

A caller reported a gas station robbery in Benzie County, a grocery store robbery in Leelanau County and a bank robbery in Grand Traverse County.

Before the Dec. 28, 2015, robbery at Honor State Bank, a caller reported he was talking to his daughter when she was shot by her boyfriend, and that he heard other shots.

"The calls confirm that the robber is likely the same for all three robberies," Stewart said.

Many people familiar with Minore said his voice was on recordings of the diversionary calls made before the Lake Ann robberies.

In the second holdup at Honor State Bank, a "World War II era pineapple-style hand grenade was used by the robber to force employees away from the vault," Stewart said.

He said police found a similar grenade at Minore's abandoned camper.

Police also linked Minore to that holdup by a sign he told a teller to place in the window to show the bank had closed. Two of the letters, the "L" and "Y," are distinctive and similar to those found in a letter Minore sent to a television reporter, the FBI said.

The FBI says a robbery suspect's handwriting appears similar in a note he had placed on a bank window and a letter he wrote to a television reporter.

Minore had faced state charges before the federal case. In a letter to 9&10 News, he denied the allegations and said he had been set up.

"Anybody who knows me knows how ridiculous these charges are," he said in the letter to the station.

A federal public defender recently assigned the case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The case will go before a grand jury for potential indictments.

Minore is accused of three counts of bank robbery, a 25-year offense, and three counts of use of a firearm in furtherance of a bank robbery, which carries at least seven years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, and at least 25 years in prison, to be served consecutively, for subsequent convictions.

Minore is jailed.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ray Kent on Tuesday, April 10, set an April 16 detention hearing.