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.
That's why it's blue(what company is it that uses that shade of blue for their tools?).
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