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Posted on 09/02/2003 11:44:52 AM PDT by weegee
(CBS/AP) The FBI on Tuesday released photos of a metal collar found around the neck of a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank and then was killed when a bomb strapped to his body exploded.
FBI Agent Bob Rudge said the bureau hopes that by releasing the photos of the collar and locking device, someone may come forward to help law enforcement solve the strange case.
A preliminary exam performed on the collar showed that it was likely not commercially manufactured, Rudge said Tuesday.
"We do not believe it has any legitimate industrial use," said Rudge. "Its most likely purpose was specifically for attaching the device to the neck of the individual that went into the PNC Bank.
Arrested Thursday after a bank robbery, Brian Douglas Wells told authorities someone had forced him to rob the bank. He told officers a bomb was attached to him, but he died when it exploded before the bomb squad could get there.
At a news conference Tuesday, Rudge showed photographs of the triple-banded metal collar he said was around Wells' neck and a lock that kept it in place. The bomb was attached to the collar, authorities said.
Police had surrounded Wells, 46, a short time after he robbed a PNC Bank branch outside Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania. Wells had gone to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with the bomb strapped to his body.
When police stopped Wells, he told them about the bomb and asked why authorities weren't helping to get it off him. Police backed off and were waiting for the bomb squad when the bomb exploded. No one else was injured.
According to police and the FBI, Wells produced an "extensive" robbery note at the bank, which has been sent to handwriting experts. Rudge did not release any additional information about the note Tuesday.
I think there is a possibility of up to 80 percent that this individual is innocent," Professor Robert Heibel, a retired FBI agent, told CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski.
Heibel said Wells likely was set up, a tactic more common to drug runners or terrorists than bank robbers.
"He was being threatened that if he didn't rob the bank, once they hung that device around his neck let's say, then he becomes their patsy," Heibel said. "There are a number of ways they could have convinced him that it is a live device and from there on he is really at their mercy."
Meanwhile, officials released information from an autopsy on one of Wells' co-workers, Robert Pinetti, 43, who was found dead Sunday at his home in nearby Lawrence Park Township. Authorities do not know if his death is connected with Wells' case.
Pinetti had a history of substance abuse and preliminary testing appeared to show methadone and "valium-type" drugs in his system, authorities said. There was no trauma, officials said.
I go with the latter. Arabs blow up a lot of people when they do it --- at least more than one. To me this looks like a typical lesson from a drug lord to his customers.
"This is what I can do and this is what will happen in the future."
Thanks. I had read his neck. I watched the videos and didn't notice the car door. Will check again.
It's a relatively small point but one that has generated a fair amount of confusion here. Your other points were very incisive. I hadn't noticed the lack of smoke for instance. My wife and I were wondering if Prima-cord (sp?) might have been used. But that is a bit smoky isn't it?
If this is foreign groups behind this --- Middle East or drug cartel --- it's going to be real hard. For all the money spent on the WOD, they've let these types outsmart them. People need to read the type and growth of crime in Colombia and Mexico because nothing is stopping it from coming here.
Just like Columbine a few years ago.......fully armed policemen hid behind their cars, forcing unarmed schoolchildren to face deranged killers all alone.
To Protect and Serve? It needs review.
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I don't see much similarity. At Columbine they waited a long time to go in knowing that many innocents were inside.
Here they had about ten minutes or less to assess the situation and in that time they cuffed the apparent perp, called the bomb squad and secured the area. They knew that this one guy just robbed a bank, he told them he had a bomb on him (and they confirmed it by pulling up his t-shirt) and they had no idea how powerful it was or how long the timer was set for. Assuming that they could trust him and there WAS a timer on it. Assuming he knew all the details of the bomb's construction and it didn't have a remote detonator that someone watching nearby could trigger.
The Columbine cops were pussies. These guys yanked this guy over to the curb about two blocks from the bank and went to work. The bomb squad WAS there in twenty minutes ... but it went boom before that.
The mob is a lot more discrete than this. Explosives always get's fed.gov involved, and the mob avoids them like the plaugue.
A lot of mob hits hang themselves or are "drug related robbery murders".
I.E.: We've found a crack pipe and the victims wallet is empty, drug robbery, case closed.
You have better resolution than I do, I didn't see the swaying. It's an unfortunately placed bush.
Me either. I believe the police did everything within reason. It's bad enough the poor guy died, but taking two or three officers with him would've been worse.
There was nothing they could do.
There's a joke there, but I ain't touching it.
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