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Tag: bank robbery

  • Cop-Killer Busted During Bank Robbery, Shot Dead

    A man who was shot dead by an undercover officer after a bank robbery in Phoenix on Saturday was behind the murder of a cop last week, authorities say.

    40-year old Mario Edward Garnett began a spree earlier this month in Atlanta, attempting a bank robbery but resorting to holding up a customer at the ATM; several hours later, he showed up in Mississippi, where he robbed another bank and was very nearly caught. The robbery ended in a violent gunfight, during which he shot two police officers. Gale Stauffer later died from his injuries.

    Garnett’s robbery in Phoenix was almost successful, but he ran into a police officer during his getaway and opened fire. The officer wasn’t wounded, and an undercover agent who happened to be nearby on an unrelated case was able to intervene.

    “This is a situation where we had a detective on the street doing a follow-up on an unrelated incident who heard a radio call. He was close by, so he responded,” Phoenix Police spokesman James Holmes said. “It chills me to think what might have happened had he not responded, based on the information we have now.”

    Officer Stauffer was laid to rest on Friday with thousands in attendance; Officer Joseph Maher has been upgraded from critical condition and is able to walk with some assistance.

    Garnett, it turns out, had just been released from an eight-month prisons sentence in July after a 2010 incident in which he wrote on the official White House website that he would shoot President Obama.

    “If you order a strike on Iran, I’m going to come up there and blow your brains out on national TV,” he wrote.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Tupelo Shooting: Officer Killed During Bank Robbery

    On Monday, the day before Christmas Eve, Police Sergeant Gale Stauffer was shot and killed by an assault rifle, and another officer was seriously wounded.

    It happened when officers interrupted a robbery at BanCorp South’s Gloster Creek Village branch as the criminals were making their getaway. Witnesses reported seeing one man wearing a ski mask, and carrying an AK-47, the assault rifle that was used on the officers.

    Stauffer joined the force in 2005 and has a wife and two young children. He died shortly after the shooting. The other officer, just 26 years of age was listed in critical condition at a local hospital.

    Tupelo, Mississippi is deeply saddened at the tragedy and local television station WTVA reported Monday’s shooting could have marked the first death of a police officer in the line of duty in at least 29 years in Tupelo, MS, a small town that is 170 miles northeast of Jackson.

    A passer-by, Kenny Steen, heard a racket coming from a pawn store in Tupelo: “We heard some, just a real, ‘burr, burr’ real fast, so we came out and there was cop cars coming they stopped right here in the street,” he said.

    Steen added, that he witnessed the moment the officer was shot: “Soon as I came out, there was an officer actually falling, going down.”

    Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton acknowledged the community’s grief and called on residents to attend a candlelight vigil on Christmas Eve to honor Stauffer’s bravery.

    “The law enforcement is leaving no stone unturned. They’re out following every lead and certainly just pray that they fugitives can be captured,” Mayor Shelton said.

    “It’s just tragic. It’s just so much worse when it’s this close to home,” Shelton added.

    The FBI is now on the case and a reward is being offered to anyone who can assist them in locating the suspects. The man witnesses saw has been described as 5’9″ to 6′ tall, a thin build with a light black complexion.

    Local businesses have donated funds for a reward to anyone with information that leads to an arrest. The reward has reached $160,000.

    Image via YouTube

  • Tupelo Shooting Leaves a Family Without a Father

    The town of Tupelo, Mississippi, is mourning the death of Police Officer Gale Stauffer who was shot and killed during a bank robbery on Monday, December 23rd. The individual responsible for the crime was concealed behind a mask before walking into BanCorpSouth’s Gloster Creek Village branch wielding a AK-47 assault rifle. When two police officers arrived at the scene, the individual fired at both and killed Stauffer.

    Though details are still emerging about this incident, the community has been shattered by the tragedy. Tupelo resident Matt Lavender said, ”I’m glad they’re actually doing something about it. It takes a special breed of person actually to do something that low.”

    Kenny Steen heard the blasts from the rifle and recalled his experience. “We heard some, just a real, ‘burr, burr’ real fast, so we came out and there was cop cars coming they stopped right here in the street. Soon as I came out, there was an officer actually falling, going down,” Steen said.

    ”It’s scary. It’s sad. It makes me not want to go in the bank with my children anymore,” said Heather Krutz, who was in the vicinity of the bank when the robbery occurred.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is presently working on the case, and has already interviewed a person of interest located in Union County. The home and vehicle were both adequately searched; however, investigators released the person of interest.

    Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton acknowledged the community’s grief at losing such a valuable member, and spoke about a vigil to honor the brave man. ”There will be a vigil in Fairpark at 5 p.m. tomorrow, just to honor and bring the community together in honor of Sergeant Stauffer and pray for him and his family.”

    Officer Stauffer’s tragic death has left a wife without a husband and two children (a son and a daughter) without a father within days of the Christmas holiday.

    A reward is being offered to catch the perpetrator where the amount continues to increase due to donations from local businesses and banks. The amount is presently close to $150,000.

    Image Via NDN

  • I-55 Bank Robber Turns Himself In To FBI

    I-55 Bank Robber Turns Himself In To FBI

    Since May of this year, multiple banks along I-55 were robbery victims, and the FBI had reason to believe that the instances were connected by a single perpetrator. They described the man, dubbed the “I-55 bandit,” as “young (18 to 25 years old), tall (6’0” to 6’3”), and thin with short brown hair.” They also claimed that, “In all four cases, the unknown subject used a demand note and did not show a weapon but implied he was armed.” Luckily, no one was ever harmed at the scenes of the crime, despite his subtle threats. The FBI’s post was put on the website on July 11, and the bandit had eluded them since then.

    Today, however, an Illinois teenager turned himself in to the FBI, claiming to be the infamous bandit. The man that came forward, named Andrew Maberry, is nineteen years old, and is currently facing a charge of one count of bank robbery, relating to an incident on July 2 in the string of crimes.

    Extensive thanks came from the FBI in response to the media’s rallying behind finding the thief and having him turned over into the hands of justice. FBI Special Agent Dean C. Bryant came out in a public statement as saying, “We want to thank the news media and digital billboard companies for providing coverage on the I-55 Bandit. We have no doubt Maberry’s surrender was a direct result of the extensive media attention. We also appreciate the dozens of solid tips we were provided by the public. The FBI has long relied on the public to help identify and capture criminals.”

    Multiple phone calls were placed to the FBI after they posted pictures from surveillance tapes of the crime scenes, with callers saying they recognized Maberry as the man in the photos.

    Maberry faces potential charges for many other instances of bank robberies, up to nine counts.

    Image courtesy of the FBI’s website.

  • Louisiana Gunman Kills Hostage Before Being Shot

    A standoff inside a Louisiana bank ended in tragedy last night after a 20-year old gunman shot two of his hostages before police took him down.

    Fuaed Abdo Ahmed gave authorities a list of demands after taking over the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, and based on that list, police believe he was a seriously ill individual. Ahmed told them he had a device in his head that made him hear voices and said he wanted it all to stop. He also had a bag full of items to torture people with, and police believe he would have done just that to his hostages if he’d had the time.

    “His intent was to inflict pain and kill these individuals,” Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said.

    Ahmed initially held three people hostage but let one woman go during the 12-hour standoff; the other two hostages, a man and a woman, were both shot before the S.W.A.T. team swarmed in. Police have not identified them but say one died and one is in critical condition.

    Ahmed’s family owns a local convenience store and were at the scene to help police. However, Ahmed was prepared; authorities say he had a book on hostage negotiations and knew what he was in store for.

    “This was not a bank robbery,” Edmonson said. “He actually had a book for negotiations… and knew exactly how the negotiations would take place, the questions he would be asked.”

  • Rickie Lawrence Gardner: Bank Robber Says, “Arrest Me, Please”

    Lyndon McWhorter, Police Chief of Moulton, Ala., has announced the capture of bank robber Rickie Lawrence Gardner.

    Don’t care?

    That’s because Rickie Lawrence Gardner wasn’t really a bank robber. Gardner, age 49, was worried that he’d suffered a career-ending leg injury and was destined for the streets. “Three hots and a cot” sounded pretty good to a guy who was about to be out of hearth and home.

    So he pulled up to the Bank Independent branch in Moulton, walked in, and offered up a note that said he had a weapon and wanted money. The clerk handed over roughly $4000 and Gardner walked out, put the cash in his car, locked the vehicle, and sat down on a bench to wait for the cops to arrive.

    McWhorter said Gardner told authorities that he robbed the bank because he had hurt his leg and wasn’t able to take care of himself. “So,” said McWhorter, “he decided to get arrested to have a place to live and someone to take care of him.”

    Arresting authorities report that he had no weapon on him other than a pocketknife but he believed that threatening the clerk with a hypothetical weapon would increase his jail time, hence a longer-term stay in the clink.

    “When the officers got there, he was just sitting on the bench, waiting on them,” McWhorter said. “The money was locked up inside his truck, which was parked in the handicapped spot in front of the bank.”

    For what it’s worth, his leg injury had warranted a handicap parking sticker, which probably won’t help him at sentencing if he’s looking for a long stay. “He had a handicap sticker on his vehicle so he even parked legal,” according to McWhorter.

    Some family members are speculating that the pain medication that went along with the leg injury may have influenced Gardner’s actions.

  • Five Dead In Bank Robbery In Southern Israel

    Five people are dead after an apparent bank robbery in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba went tragically wrong yesterday.

    Around lunchtime yesterday, an armed man entered a branch of Bank Hapoalim in a residential area. In the ensuing standoff with police, two bank employees and two customers were killed before the gunman killed himself.

    While initial reports called the incident a botched robbery, subsequent information has revealed a slightly different picture. According to the Jerusalem Post, the gunman, 40-year-old former border guard Itamar Alon, had recently been denied an extension on his credit due to an outstanding debt.

    The victims were branch manager Avner Cohen, deputy manager Meir Zeitoun, and customers Anat Evan-Haim and Idan Schnitzer Sabiri.