What about the guy who had bomb strapped on him?

[jmarie]

My prayer is that they did everything in their power to help this man. I have no idea if he was telling the truth, but as it is being portrayed on the media at this point, this is one of the saddest things I have ever heard! When I first saw it this morning, I could not stop crying. It is bad enough if he did this to himself...but if it WAS someone else who did this to him...this is so frightening.
Joyce

[Tess]

How horrible to think someone would force another person to do something by putting a bomb on them. Just when you think you can't be suprised along comes something like this! I hope they catch the guy.
Tess

[tamawrite]

Lest I sound like a complete idiot, I bow my head shamefully as I ask...what happened? (I don't watch TV and I just returned from a 10 day wilderness rafting trip anyway.) TIA

[MKSquared]

Ever since I read this thread, I've been looking for information online, and I can't seem to find any either, tamawrite. :confused:

[mst]

Basically, a man robbed a bank. When the police caught him, the man told him that he was forced to rob the bank because someone put a bomb around his neck. The police called the bomb squad, but the bomb went off before they could get there, and the man died.

The man was begging for someone to remove the bomb. And, some news station has the whole thing on tape. Really spooky stuff.

[jmarie]

And now the guys co-worker and friend has been found dead at the co-worker's parent's house. At this point, they cannot establish a connection. apparently the pizza place received a call for pizza. The manager couldn't understand the directions and the delivery guy got on the phone, got the directions and set out to deliver the pizza's. Within an hour, he showed up at the bank with the bomb strapped on him and a note saying it was a robbery. They are now checking the guys handwriting against the note. The guy sitting on the road pleading for someone to remove the bomb...sad....so terribly sad.
J.

[Molli526]

How terribly sad :(

[boisewinesnob]

OMG! How terrible :( . Where did this happen?

[HealthyinMN]

This is a very strange story and it keeps getting more strange to boot!

Michael Slackman, New York Times

Published September 1, 2003

At first it appeared to be a run-of-the-mill bank robbery.

Brian Douglas Wells, 46, a pizza delivery man, walked into a bank on a busy street in Erie, Pa., on Thursday, slipped the teller a note and walked out with a bag of cash, said Special Agent Bob Rudge, a supervisor in the FBI's Erie office.

But in a twist that has even experienced local and federal investigators perplexed, Wells had a bomb around his chest that detonated and killed him shortly after he was stopped by police and taken into custody. When he was arrested, investigators say, he claimed that someone had forced him to wear the bomb, then set a timer and sent him out to rob the bank.

FBI agents who were called in to investigate the robbery are assisting local law enforcement officers in determining whether Wells' death was a homicide, Rudge said.

"There is information that he was forced to don this type of apparatus," he said Sunday. "That is what we are investigating. Whether or not that is the case, we just don't know yet."

The story took another turn Sunday when a friend and co-worker of Wells was found dead.

The Associated Press quoted police officials as saying that there was no obvious link between the two deaths. Nevertheless, as a precaution, authorities sent a bomb squad to search the house where the man's body was found.

Investigators said that the 43-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, lived in the house with his parents and that police officers had received a call early Sunday asking for medical assistance at the home, but that the man refused it. A few hours later, authorities were called to the house again after his parents found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead.

"There was nothing overtly obvious as to the cause of his death," said Cpl. Mark Zaleski of the state police, "but because there's a relationship between the two individuals, we are over there."

Both the man and Wells worked for Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria on Peach Street, a busy commercial strip.

It was about 1:40 p.m. on Thursday when Wells set out to deliver a pizza to a residence on the same street, Rudge said. FBI agents said they believe that Wells did make his last delivery. Investigators did not find a pizza in the car.

But what happened after that is unclear.

What officials do know is that an hour after leaving for his delivery, the pizza man was slipping a note to a teller at the PNC Bank, also on Peach Street.

The note asked for money and it said that Wells was carrying a bomb, investigators said.

"The teller gave him the money," Rudge said. "He exited the bank."

As Wells went to his car, witnesses telephoned the state police. There were troopers nearby, and they pulled Wells over before he left Peach Street. As soon as they handcuffed him, he told them he had a bomb strapped to his chest, that it was about to explode and that someone else had put it there, investigators said.

"It's going to go off," Wells is heard saying on videotape taken at the scene by a local TV station, WJET-TV. "I'm not lying."

Indeed, he wasn't. As the authorities waited for a bomb disposal team to arrive, the device strapped to Wells exploded, and he was killed in the blast. He was the only casualty.

Rudge said that the state police had ordered Wells to sit on the pavement near a police car. He said they cleared an area around him and called in the Erie police bomb squad.

It is not unusual for bank robbers to force tellers to hand over money by claiming to be carrying explosives, but bank robbers who actually have explosives are a bit more unusual, and bank robbers who actually die when bombs go off are virtually unheard of, Rudge said.

"What makes this case different is the robber was killed," Rudge said

[Randi R]

what a horrible thing. I hadn't heard about his coworker. How can they think they're not connected???

[jmarie]

Apparently, he had problems earlier that day and his parents called 911 and he refused help.

Then his parents checked on him and he was in real trouble and was dead by time paramedics got there.

[sharris315]

MSN had a pic of him sitting alone on the ground in front of a police car. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see him sitting there--the caption said that a few minutes after the pic was taken, the bomb detonated, and he was killed.

Could his co-worker have blamed himself in some way? Thought he could have done something to prevent it? Maybe could not deal with the events?

How sad

Shar

[tamawrite]

OMG, how sad. Isn't it strange to think we humans are capable of such great good...and such great evil?