911 Tapes of Erie Collar Bomb robbery

1 posted on 09/05/2003 12:57:51 PM PDT by FootBall

I think this guy was innocent. It's completely plausible that he was ambushed and beset with this bomb.

What a horrible crime.

2 posted on 09/05/2003 1:03:37 PM PDT by Dirk McQuickly

Brian Wells, 46, was killed on Aug. 28 after authorities said he robbed a bank, warning the tellers he was a human bomb. He died when the bomb exploded after he had been arrested a short distance from the PNC Bank in Erie, Pa.

The first word of the robbery came at 2:32 p.m., when the 911 operator asked a caller what the emergency was.

"Yes, we just have been robbed," the bank teller said. "Yes this is an emergency. We have a bank robbery at PNC bank."

Wells had told the teller that he had a bomb around his neck and was given a bag of money.

"The guy just walked out with … I don't know how much cash in the bag," the caller to the emergency line said. "He had a bomb or something, or something wrapped around his neck."

Wells fled with the money, but was captured just a quarter of a mile away, and then he told police about the bomb around his neck.

"The troopers immediately backed away from the individual, and secured the immediate vicinity for the safety of others," FBI agent Bob Rudge said.

He sat handcuffed on the ground beside a police car for nearly a half hour, pleading with police, telling them that someone had strapped a bomb onto him, and that it was going to explode. He said he was forced to rob the bank.

"He pulled a key out and started a timer," Wells said. "I heard the thing ticking when he did it. It's gonna go off. I'm not lying.""

At 3:18 p.m., 46 minutes after police had been alerted about the bank robbery, the bomb around Wells' neck exploded, killing him.

Report: Note Had Bomb Instructions

According to a report today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the note Wells had that gave instructions for the bank robbery also contained instructions for where he could go after the heist to get the bomb defused. The newspaper cited an anonymous law enforcement source.

Investigators originally were looking into three theories: that Wells was working alone when he robbed the bank, that he was a willing participant in a plot with other people or that he was forced to rob the bank — a "bomb hostage."

FBI agent Ken McCabe said Wednesday on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America that evidence has investigators leaning more toward the last two theories — that Wells was either in on the bank robbery plot with other people or that someone put the bomb on his neck and compelled him to rob the bank.

"We have moved a little bit further away from initially thinking that he was doing this by himself, where the facts and evidence are leading us into a direction that there may have been other people involved," McCabe said.

The locking collar that held the bomb around Wells' neck appears to have been homemade, McCabe said, and a weapon he carried — "some kind of gun," the FBI agent said — also was unique and apparently homemade. It was reportedly in the shape of a walking cane.

3 posted on 09/05/2003 1:07:17 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)

To: FootBall; Dirk McQuickly

>>>>and a weapon he carried — "some kind of gun," the FBI agent said — also was unique and apparently homemade. It was reportedly in the shape of a walking cane

Look at this:

Cane Parts from Crosman , copper, PVC, etc., along with ideas and effort became this cane. The22" copper shroud houses a .177 cal barrel. The model 700 action provides mower and loading from it's tap. Ron Mundale, Maiden Rock, WI.

http://www.bryanandac.com/new_page_10.htm

5 posted on 09/05/2003 1:13:15 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)

"He pulled a key out and started a timer,"

Why would he pull out the key that started the timer?

6 posted on 09/05/2003 1:18:30 PM PDT by TankerKC (If I can take a Creative Writing class, why can't I take Creative Spelling class?)

I heard on FOX (and no, I'm not sure what show, it just caught my ear) that the collar bombs are not usually an Americanized type weapon. They're often used over seas somewhere.

7 posted on 09/05/2003 1:30:56 PM PDT by concerned about politics (Lucifers lefties are still stuck at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy)

Brian Wells (the dead guy) is saying whomever put the bomb on him pulled the pin. Wells didn't pull the pin.

8 posted on 09/05/2003 1:31:09 PM PDT by keats5

"He pulled a key out and started a timer,"

Why would he pull out the key that started the timer?

If he was a 'willing' participant, I assume he didn't want to face the consequences for his actions.

If he 'wasn't' a willing participant, we have no idea how extensive the threats and terms of his instructions were.

9 posted on 09/05/2003 1:34:12 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)

Is this a "duh?" type question?

10 posted on 09/05/2003 1:34:20 PM PDT by John Valentine (In Seoul, and keeping one eye on the hills to the North...)

To: TankerKC; keats5

Keats5 is right! I had to reread this over again to follow it:
>>>
He sat handcuffed on the ground beside a police car for nearly a half hour, pleading with police, telling them that someone had strapped a bomb onto him, and that it was going to explode. He said he was forced to rob the bank.

"He pulled a key out and started a timer," Wells said. "I heard the thing ticking when he did it. It's gonna go off. I'm not lying.""
>>>
He did not blow himself up. The timer was set by whomever strapped it onto his neck.

11 posted on 09/05/2003 1:40:35 PM PDT by Calpernia (Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does.)

To: John Valentine; keats5

It is a "duh"....I didn't read carefully. Thanks keats5. I'll crawl back into my hole.

12 posted on 09/05/2003 1:48:47 PM PDT by TankerKC (If I can take a Creative Writing class, why can't I take Creative Spelling class?)

I have had a hard time believing anyone would purposedly blow themselves up in the course of a bank robbery.

Doesn't make sense.

13 posted on 09/05/2003 1:58:18 PM PDT by wardaddy (deforestation now!)

Man, that copper thingy looks like something floating in my toilet tank.

14 posted on 09/05/2003 9:48:49 PM PDT by ntnychik

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794