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

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A man with a bomb strapped to his chest robbed a northwestern Pennsylvania bank and died when the bomb apparently went off during a standoff with police, authorities said.

The man, who has not been identified, went into a PNC Bank in Erie, about 110 miles north of Pittsburgh, handed a teller a note saying he had a bomb strapped to chest and pulled up his shirt to prove it, said Mark Dombrowski, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based bank.

As the man left the bank with the money, customers wrote down his license plate number and called authorities with their cell phones, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said.

The man was pulled over about a half mile from the bank by state police troopers, who happened to be nearby, authorities said.

The troopers handcuffed the man but quickly backed off after the man reportedly told them he had a bomb.

State police blocked off the area and there was a short standoff before the bomb exploded, killing the man Thursday afternoon, Crowley said. Authorities initially said the man apparently set the bomb off himself.

"You could hear it like a big old firecracker," said Matt Snippert, who was at a nearby restaurant. "There was a cloud of smoke and debris — the cops ran over and then they ran back."

Police treat death as homicide

Read More Local News

By Scott Westcott
scott.westcott@timesnews.com
and LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com

Brian Wells left Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria, 5154 Peach St., Thursday afternoon on what seemed to be a routine delivery of two sausage-and-pepperoni pizzas.

Less than two hours later, the 46-year-oldMillcreek man lay dead in an upper Peach Street store driveway, killed when a bomb strapped to his chest exploded.

Investigators indicated Friday that evidence of what transpired between when Wells left to deliver the pizzas and the time of his death could have the makings of one of the most bizarre crimes in Erie County history. "Weird" was the word used by several high-ranking law enforcement officials.

"I've never seen anything like it," one investigator said.

Officials confirmed Wells robbed the PNC Bank in Summit Towne Centre around 2:30 p.m. Thursday when he handed a note to an employee stating he had a bomb. He then raised his T-shirt to reveal a black bomb strapped to his chest.

By early Friday morning, the FBI was exploring the possibility Wells had been forced to rob the bank — and later became a homicide victim when the bomb exploded.

Shortly before his death, Wells told police he was forced to rob the bank.

"I'm not lying," Wells can be heard saying on footage aired by local television stations. "Did you call my boss? ... I'm not doing this. This isn't me. I'm not doing this."

In a news release issued by the state police, officials said only that Wells made "a number" of statements about the nature of the bomb and when it would explode, but that it remained unknown exactly how or why the bomb detonated at 3:18 p.m.

Bob Rudge, the FBI special agent in charge of the Erie office, described the bomb as "low grade" and would not say if investigators believe it detonated on purpose or by accident. "It's too early to tell," he said.

Wells was sitting cross-legged with his hands cuffed behind his back when the bomb exploded.

"We'll treat it, until we know otherwise, as a homicide," Rudge said as he emerged from a morning meeting at the Erie County Courthouse. In that meeting were 34 law-enforcement officials from various agencies, including the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Pennsylvania State Police, Erie and Millcreek police and the Erie County District Attorney's Office. Rudge said there were no suspects in custody Friday.

State police, in their news release, said the investigation has expanded in "many different directions, with many new leads and information being received from the public."

The robbery and explosion that followed caused police to close down busy upper Peach Street from Hershey Road to Robison Road until the early-morning hours Friday.

Many investigators searched at least three other locations — including two in the woods off Interstate 79 — for clues that might be linked to the crime. Others worked around the clock gathering information about Wells. The house where he lived in the 2400 block of Loveland Avenue was searched early Friday morning.

"We're developing as much information as we can about the victim," Rudge said. "We just don't know much about him."

Those who knew Wells described him as a quiet, friendly man in his 40s who lived with three cats in the small white house. Neighbors said Wells spent his time listening to music and tinkering with his Geo Metro. Several neighbors said they didn't believe Wells would rob a bank of his own volition.

"He had the innocence of a child," said Jeffrey Harpst. "He was too shy and timid for something like this. I think it was people too chicken to do it themselves, so they had to use a poor scapegoat to do it for them."

Wells' family members declined comment Friday.

Much of Friday's investigation focused on the location of Wells' last pizza delivery — 8631 Peach St. The bumpy gravel driveway there leads to a television transmission tower in a weedy and wooded area not visible from the road.

Employees at Mama Mia's said that when they received the call for the two small pizzas, they were unaware they were sending Wells to an address that was not a residence or business. Employees said the restaurant's owner took the call, and then handed the phone to Wells so he could get specific directions.

Members of a state police forensics team combed the area near the radio tower Friday.

After the robbery, several witnesses spotted Wells leaving in his green Geo Metro. PNC Bank officials declined to comment on how much money the teller gave Wells.

Shortly after the robbery was reported, police surrounded Wells' car in the driveway of Eyeglass World, less than one-quarter of a mile from the bank. Guns drawn, they ordered him from the car and handcuffed him.

Eyeglass World employee Lori Beksel said she watched a state police trooper use a pair of scissors to cut Wells' shirt, revealing the black bomb.

Eyeglass World employees were told to evacuate the store shortly before the bomb exploded at 3:18 p.m.

"I was sad," Beksel said. "For some reason, I felt guilty. When you see someone 15 minutes before they die, you feel like there is something you could have done."

The Erie County Coroner's Office spent much of the day Friday conducting an autopsy on Wells' body, beginning at 10 a.m. and finishing around 5:30 p.m., according to Deputy Coroner Korac Timon.

Afterward, Timon and forensic pathologist Dr. Eric Vey attended a meeting with about 25 local and federal law-enforcement officials. They talked at the meeting about the nature of Wells' injuries, but did not reach a conclusion on the official cause of death.

The exact manner in which Wells died remains "in question," Timon said Friday night. Officials are waiting for the results of toxicology and other tests.

Timon did say Wells was declared dead at 5:45 p.m., more than two hours after the bomb went off. Timon had to wait until members of the Erie Bomb Squad secured the scene before he could examine Wells' body. The body was not removed until about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

Meanwhile, back on Loveland Avenue, where Wells lived, neighbors were left shaking their heads.

Linda Payne, who knew Wells for five years and who owns the property where he has lived since late 2001, described him as a person who "was really shy and didn't want to be in the limelight.

"He did drink a little, smoke a little and gamble a little, but he was a quiet man," Payne said. "He didn't care about the material things in life."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Erie FBI office at 452-4516.

Jule Gardner contributed to this report.

SCOTT WESTCOTT can be reached at 870-1733 or by e-mail.

LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail.

Last changed August 29. 2003 1:37PM

Source

Bomb parts flown to FBI lab

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

GERRY WEISS can be reached at 870-1884 or by e-mail.

Last changed: August 31. 2003 3:33AM

Strange, eh? I'm curious why the cops didn't find the bomb when they frisked him prior to cuffing him. They did frisk him, right? Curious.

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