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Looks like 5 hostages, local paper just updated story..
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Five hostages remain in Exeter bank
By Tracey La Monica
Staff writer
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060125/NEWS01/60125004
EXETER — Authorities are saying a total of five employees are being held hostage tonight by a man who they say is armed inside the Exeter branch of Bank of America.
The armed man, walked into the bank as it was closing this afternoon, taking nine people inside hostage, said Tulare County sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Douglass.
Four of hostages — a woman and her 15-month-old baby and a couple that had been opening up an account — were released as police and sheriff’s deputies quickly surrounded the bank, at 100 E. Pine St.
At the request of Exeter’s chief of police, the Tulare County Sheriff’s SWAT team has taken command of the incident, Douglass said.
And have a county sheriff’s negotiator in talks with the armed man by phone, said Tulare County sheriff’s Lt. Keith Douglass.
Authorities have not yet released information on what the armed man’s demands.
Family members of those being held hostage have been lingering in the bank’s downtown area and are reportedly receiving phone calls from loved ones inside the bank.
The woman who said she was released because she had a 15-month-old baby with her described the hostage-taker as about 40 years old.
The witness, Margie Riportella of Exeter, said the man was carrying a briefcase but she saw no weapon.
She said the bank manager, a teller and two customers remained inside with the hostage-taker. Another two customers were released.
“He’s got everyone in the middle of the room,” Riportella told reporters. “It was totally weird. He was ‘out there.’ ”
She said she meant that he appeared to be unstable.