Investigators Probe Bizarre Bomb Death of Pizza Deliveryman

Fox ^ | 8.31.2003 | AP

[RedBloodedAmerican]

ERIE, Pa.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

IMO they should have made the effort to get it off him. He was cuffed next to the car.

Wasn't posted, couldnt find this doing a search.

[OXENinFLA]

This is strange?

Who put the bomb on him?

[sirchtruth]

My post to the OTHER thread was:

What happened to the pizza?!

[strela]

Did he work for Bombinos?

[OXENinFLA]

http://goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030831/FRONTPAGE/108310359

By Gerry Weiss
gerry.weiss@timesnews.com


Erie FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said investigators are confident they will soon solve the mystery behind the bizarre bombing death of Brian Wells.

Rudge met for nine hours on Saturday with a multi-agency task force that included law-enforcement officials from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Pennsylvania State Police, the Erie County District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"We are looking into every facet of the incident and are conducting a complete, thorough and meticulous investigation," Rudge said Saturday night.

The task force will resume its investigation this morning when they meet at Erie's FBI office, 717 State St.

Remnants of the bomb that killed Wells Thursday afternoon on upper Peach Street were flown out of Erie Saturday to the FBI lab in Quantico, W. Va.

"We don't know yet as to why the bomb detonated or how it detonated," Rudge said. "That will be the focus when we get the forensics back from Quantico."

Rudge did not say when results of those tests would be available.

Wells, a 46-year-old pizza delivery man from Millcreek, told police he had been forced to rob the PNC Bank in Summit Towne Centre and asked authorities to help him minutes before a bomb strapped to his chest exploded and killed him.

Wells had left Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria, 5154 Peach St., to deliver two pizzas to a location at 8631 Peach St., a remote and rural area that leads to a television transmission tower.

No arrests have been made in the case, and authorities have not identified anyone as suspects.

WJET-TV captured audio and video from Wells as he sat handcuffed in front of a state police cruiser in an upper Peach Street business driveway.

"Why is nobody trying to come get this thing off me?" Wells asked police. "It's going to go off. I'm not lying."

Rudge said the bomb appeared to have hung from Wells' neck. Rudge declined to comment on the specifics of the bomb.

No one else was hurt in Thursday's explosion, which happened in front of law enforcement officers as they waited for a bomb squad to arrive.

Rudge said Wells entered the PNC bank and produced an "extensive note" demanding money and saying he had a bomb. Rudge would not provide any details about the note. Rudge also would not say if any money was recovered at the scene.

"We are confident, through what is an ongoing and extremely elaborate investigation, that we will solve this," Rudge said Saturday night.

Results from an autopsy performed Friday on Wells were not available Saturday. Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook was out of town Saturday and could not be reached for comment.

For those traumatized by the incident, the American Red Cross has assembled its Disaster Mental Health team to visit Peach Street businesses in the vicinity of the bombing.

Psychiatrists Bob Dowling and Judith Fair, among the team's members, left information at various businesses to help employees and others understand their reactions to traumatic events.

[csvset]

A similar article is here. I'm pointing this out not as a thread nanny, just some additional info was posted.

My question is why wasn't the bomb found when the State Police frisked him prior to cuffing him? You'd think that they'd have frisked him.

That being said, I believe Columbian terrorists use a tactic of attaching bombs to people. Those bombs however are usually plainly visable, usually something akin to a "collar" placed around the victim's neck.

FBI: Man killed by bomb after bank robbery (Oops!)

[OXENinFLA]

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030829/NEWS02/108290360

Incident closes busy Peach Street-Title

The incident they are talking about is, of course, A MAN THAT WAS FORCED TO ROB A BANK W/ A BOMB STRAPPED TO HIS CHEST EXPLODES, while waiting for the bobm squad....Gheese. This guy get killed, and all these people care about is the Traffic?

[mikegi]

Was the guy really an innocent victim? I can imagine this scenario: pizza delivery guy in his 40s decides to commit the perfect bank robbery. He makes it look like some customer forced him to do it. No need for an alibi - he's a victim, too. All the while, he leaves the money sitting in the woods somewhere for later retrieval.

I expect the guy's story to fall in pieces after an investigation.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Thanks, I couldn't find it doing a search. Please delete this thread, it's a duplicate.

[Imal]

That reads best if you imagine Norm McDonald is reading it on Saturday Night Live.

He had a way with emphasis in these sorts of situations.

[OXENinFLA]

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030829/FRONTPAGE/108290363

That guy standing in the background looks like he's about 12.

[em2vn]

He put a real bomb on himself that would blow him to pieces? Either what he said was true or it was a very strange suicide.

[OXENinFLA]

I think you should leave this thread.

This is not an OOPS! bank robbery. This guy was kidnaped and told to rob a bank w/ a strapon bomb.

[OXENinFLA]

"Why is nobody trying to come get this thing off me?" Wells asked police. "It's going to go off. I'm not lying."

I don't think he put the bomb on himself, I think it was put on him.

[OXENinFLA]

How about this:

Suspects call and get a Pizza delivered, overpower the guy, strap on this "bomb" and tell him he has "X" amount of time to rob a bank, most likely a specific one, and get back to them and they will defuse the bomb.

I just don't get this.

If the dead man put the bomb on himself, why not turn it off after he left the bank?

Unless he liked driving around town wearing an explosive device as a necklace.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Maybe he set the timer after he drove away, as the police caught him. Maybe he took what OJ did to the next level.

If it was put on him by someone else, the cops bombed out on this one. If the timer had been active all the time, would he have made it to the thieves before it detonated?

[OXENinFLA]

I'd like to know how much time past from the time he told them about the bomb, ot the time the Bomb squad showed up.

10-20 mins?

It looks like the bank was next to a interstate too. Getaway?

And the way I read some of this it looks like there is video of this.

[OXENinFLA]

WJET-TV captured audio and video from Wells as he sat handcuffed

Time enough for a TV crew to show up.

[ChemistCat]

If someone put a bomb on me and told me to go rob a bank, and the bomb had a TIMER rather than a remote trigger, and I KNEW that, there's no WAY I'd go rob the bank. I'd go get help to get the thing off before time's-up!!!!!

So that's what I don't get. 9/11 should have taught us to NEVER cooperate with evil. Die trying, but never do what the bad guy wants you to do.

[OXENinFLA]

good point, but what if it had both?