- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96109,00.html
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- ERIE, Pa. - Federal and
local authorities are investigating the case of a pizza deliveryman who
was killed when explosives strapped to his neck detonated after he robbed
a bank.
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- Brian Douglas Wells (search), 46, answered a delivery
call Thursday to a mysterious address in a remote area and ended up at
about an hour later at a bank wearing a bomb.
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- As the time bomb ticked tried in vain to convince police,
who were waiting for the bomb squad to arrive, that he was forced into
the crime, but died when the explosives detonated.
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- WJET-TV of Erie (search) captured audio and video from
Wells as he sat handcuffed in front of a state police cruiser. "Why
is nobody trying to come get this thing off me?" he asked.
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- * Warning: Graphic Video
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- Evidence, including pieces of the bomb and the bank-robbery
note, have been flown to an FBI (search) lab in Quantico, Va., for further
inspection, Ken McCabe (search), an FBI agent investigating the case told
Fox News Sunday.
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- State police are also looking into the death of a 43-year-old
co-worker of Wells', Fox News has learned. The man called paramedics Sunday
morning and said he wasn't feeling well but then he refused treatment.
He was later found dead in his parents' home, where he lived.
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- Despite the unusual aspects of the incident, which McCabe
said: "This looks like a good old fashioned bank robbery with a new
twist on it," and that as of now it is a homicide investigation because
there was a death involved and there is no evidence it was a suicide.
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- "We're not ruling anything out, we're investigating
it hot and heavy all weekend," McCabe said adding that the FBI was
working with the Erie police and Pennsylvania state police.
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- McCabe said the most unusual feature of the robbery was
that the bomb was wrapped around the man's neck. "This is probably
one of the most dangerous bombs to try to defusethe bomb squad would have
to do a hand entry and use their hands and tools and try to get it off."
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- No one else was hurt in Thursday's explosion, which happened
in front of law enforcement officers as they waited for a bomb squad (search)
to arrive.
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- A state police spokesman confirmed Friday night that
Wells had made a number of statements, including that he had been forced
to rob the bank.
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- The tape shows Wells telling authorities someone had
started a timer on his bomb under his T-shirt, and that there was little
time left.
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- "It's going to go off," Wells said. "I'm
not lying."
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- Erie Chief Deputy Coroner Korac Timon said Saturday the
bomb appeared to have hung from Wells' neck, and that he had been told
it was of a "very sophisticated construction."
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- FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge called the case unusual,
noting that while bank robbers sometimes claim to have a bomb, few actually
do.
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- While no one has been arrested or identified as a suspect,
Rudge said the investigation was "going extremely well." Wells'
death was being investigated as a homicide and investigators were looking
into Wells' background.
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- Linda Payne, who owns the property where Wells lived,
described him as a private, trustworthy person who liked music and cared
for three cats. He was a friend of Payne's husband, who also had been a
pizza deliveryman, she said.
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- "I couldn't believe that he would rob a bank. He
doesn't care that much about money," Payne said. "I think somebody
lured him into that place delivering a pizza, dropped a bomb on him and
sent him into the bank ... He would not have decided to do that on his
own."
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- Wells' boss and one of the owners of Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria
outside Erie, who asked that his name not be published, said Saturday he
took a call Thursday for a pizza delivery but didn't recognize the address
given.
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- He put Wells on the phone to get directions. Wells left
to make the delivery and never returned, the pizzeria owner said.
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- The address of the delivery was a rural spot along a
main drag that runs south of the city, where a gravel road leads to a television
transmission tower.
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- According to police, Wells entered the PNC Bank branch
outside Erie on Thursday afternoon and producing an "extensive note"
demanding money and saying he had a bomb. Rudge would not provide any details
about the note.
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- Wells left with an undisclosed amount of money and got
into his car. Police surrounded him a short time later in a nearby parking
lot, pulled him out of his car and handcuffed him, authorities said.
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- The bomb exploded about 40 minutes after he entered the
bank.
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- Authorities obtained a search warrant and took evidence
from Wells' home, but a state police spokesman refused to say what was
taken. The evidence arrived at FBI laboratories in Washington, D.C., but
Rudge could not say how long testing would take.
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- State police forensics teams also searched near the spot
of Wells' last pizza delivery. It was not known what, if anything, they
found.
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