FBI Raids Erie Home After Man's Bombing Death

WPXI(Channel 11 Pittsburgh) ^ | 9/05/02 | Gina Redmond

[FITZ]

That probably will happen --- but I can see how some of the types who might know something might not be the most socially responsible people there are. Plus if they're drug addicts they might not want their sources shut down.

[TigersEye]

All of those things are possible and even likely. But the bomb brought in the FBI and they'll be on this like stink on you know what. It seems like a real stretch to me. Only a really dumb mob would arouse every available black-shiny-shoe in the process of scaring their deadbeats. Columbian mob might fit the bill. There'd bound to be street talk about something like that though.

I think there's an unconnected-to-anything-else nutjob out there and I'm wavering on thinking that Wells is totally innocent.

[FITZ]

I think you could be right about Wells being completely innocent --- I wouldn't rule it out that he was kidnapped --- except I would think they would probably have known a little about him before deciding on him. But I don't think this is the work of one nutjob --- it sounds too sophisticated with that radio tower and the whole plan just seems to me more like a small group is behind it.

[stlnative]

Investigators search garage in bank robbery blast case
By JUDY LIN
The Associated Press


ERIE, Pa. - A woman whose garage was searched Friday by investigators looking into the death of a pizza deliveryman killed in a bomb explosion after a bank robbery said she was shown a photograph of a man and asked whether he had access to her garage.

Marilyn Torres, 37, who has lived in the home for three years, said no one in her family recognized the man. She said only she, her 21-year-old son, her boyfriend and his father had access to the garage, which was kept locked and is accessible by a keypad or a key.

Willie Feliciano, 40, Torres' boyfriend, said investigators told him they believe the man they are looking for came to the garage often. Investigators also asked if he'd seen a red Lincoln Continental with whitewall tires around the neighborhood, about two miles west of downtown Erie. He said he had not.

A man who said he was the subject of the garage search said he doesn't know Brian Douglas Wells, the accused robber who died when a bomb locked to his neck exploded, the Erie Times-News reported in Saturday's editions. Torres said the FBI told her the man got access to the garage through her son, but she said her son does not know the man but had seen him on occasion.

The newspaper didn't identify the man, nor his girlfriend, who said she is Wells' cousin. The man told the newspaper that he cooperated with the FBI during two interviews but won't anymore because "enough is enough. ... For these people to come into my life and put that cloud of suspicion over me, it's wrong."

Feliciano said investigators took items including screwdrivers, duct tape, a piece of a rug, and some bolts and ratchets from the two-car detached garage.

FBI agent Bill Crowley, a spokesman for the investigation in northwestern Pennsylvania, would not comment on the search.

Officials at two companies where the man who used Feliciano's garage used to work told the newspaper that the FBI asked them about the man, an unemployed maintenance technician, and his mechanical abilities. Employees at EMSCO Inc. in Girard, told the newspaper that the man didn't have the expertise to build the collar locked to Wells' neck. Officials at the other plant, Engineered Plastics in Erie, wouldn't comment further.

Police, meanwhile, maintain that they responded quickly before Wells died Aug. 28.

A bomb squad was still two miles away when the explosive detonated, even though a witness had called 40 minutes earlier to warn police that the robber had a bomb. The 46-year-old pizza deliveryman asked police to help him get the bomb off, saying someone made him rob the bank.

On the day of the robbery, an unidentified witness called 911 at 2:38 p.m. to report that a man with a bomb hanging from his neck had walked out of the bank with a bag full of cash. Police arrested Wells minutes after he walked out of a PNC Bank branch near Erie, but they didn't call the bomb squad until 3:04 p.m., 26 minutes after the 911 call was placed.

According to the 911 call, the witness said, the robber was sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald's, which is located next to an eyeglasses shop where Wells was arrested.

"You saw him with the bomb or whatever it was?" the dispatcher said.

"Yes, he's got it strapped around his neck," the caller said.

An FBI spokesman said state and local police did everything right in handling the bomb. A telephone call to state police Cpl. Mark Zaleski was not immediately returned Friday.

Erie police Chief Charles E. Bowers said state police called the bomb squad at 3:04 p.m. Because two of the officers were off duty and the squad had to get their equipment, the squad did not arrive until a few minutes after 3:18 p.m., when the bomb exploded.

"It was excellent response time," Bowers said.

The chief said it was not surprising that police didn't call for a bomb squad until they were certain there was a bomb. He said often bank robbers say they have an explosive when they don't.

"I don't know when they (state police) finally determined ... a bomb squad was needed," Bowers said.

Had the bomb squad arrived on time, members would have tried to either dismantle the pipe bomb-like device or remove it from Wells, Bowers said. He described the explosive as smokeless powder in a metal canister.

Investigators say they are trying to determine whether Wells acted alone or if he was coerced into robbing the bank. Before he died, Wells apparently tried to give police directions to three locations to find keys that could potentially stop a timer on the bomb.

Wells can be seen on video captured by local television station WJET telling police that someone started a timer on the bomb. Although parts of the video are inaudible, Wells could be heard saying "let me tell you where to get the keys" and "next light." A law enforcement source told The Associated Press on Thursday that a note instructed Wells to go to three locations after robbing the bank.

The bomb, strapped over a gray T-shirt and under a white T-shirt, weighted down Wells' neck, and he used his legs to support the device as he sat with his hands handcuffed behind his back.

Wells dropped out of East High School in Erie during his sophomore year in the fall of 1972 in order to work. His transcript shows average work, mostly B's and C's in math, geography and science, according to current Principal Anthony LaRocco. He received an A in swimming and failed several classes, mostly because of attendance, a former teacher said.

"If he had attended school more often and had put forth the effort, he would have been fine," said Carole Petrungar, 57, who retired from East high several years ago. "I would say he was of average intelligence. He just didn't want to be in school."


September 6, 2003 10:31 AM

[stlnative]

Read the story in post 144 - (It makes my head spin trying to figure it out how many people they are referring to in the report)

[weegee]

Sorry, the whole thing looks like a clever pre-something event.

There was a guy in Germany who the press played off as a disgruntled worker. He had been sending threatening letters (I think to a newspaper) claiming that he was going to poison the town's water supply on 9/11/2003 with cyanide. He was apprehended last month and had the cyanide in possession (he acquired it through his job but I believe it was stored at his home and unnecessary for his tasks).

There was a "lone nut" who posed a threat to society at large and it got little play over here. There was 1 maybe 2 threads that I saw on FR about it.

[weegee]

I was once told by someone who was using cocaine that certain pizza shops are fronts for drug selling. Especially if the pizza they sell is crappy and you see them having a lot of business you could suspect they're up to something else.

Yeah but if the pizza place is open late at night, is near the bars, and hires flirty waitresses, it'll get business no matter what the pizza tastes like.

Some people boast that pizza is like sex; "bad pizza is still pizza".

[BARLF]

On the day of the robbery, an unidentified witness called 911 at 2:38 p.m. to report that a man with a bomb hanging from his neck had walked out of the bank with a bag full of cash.

According to the 911 call, the witness said, the robber was sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald's, which is located next to an eyeglasses shop where Wells was arrested.

"You saw him with the bomb or whatever it was?" the dispatcher said.
"Yes, he's got it strapped around his neck," the caller said.

Would this bomb contraption be easy to identify as such by a bystander? As in unidentified caller?

[Devil_Anse]

This particular pizza shop was described as a "hole-in-the-wall" type of place. Whaddya know.

When Wells was sitting there helpless, waiting to have the bomb gotten off him, one of the things he said was "Did you call my boss?"

According to the stories I read, at the time the call for this order came in, Wells was getting off, and he just agreed to drop the pizzas by on his way home. So why would he feel the need for his boss to be called? He was off duty.

I'm not even convinced that there were even any pizzas sent with him in the first place. They never found them.

What you said about pizza places in general isn't surprising, considering that there was a story within the last year about a guy selling marijuana out of the window of a fast food place. I think it is possible that other things were going on at this pizza place.

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, he may have had to cash out, but at least one article said he was ready to end his shift and leave. The call came in, and supposedly Wells agreed to take care of it. It sounds like (assuming Wells and his employer didn't know what was about to happen) Wells could be trusted to bring the price of those last pizzas back next time he came to work. IOW, I tend to think that he had already cashed out at the time he took this last delivery.

[Optimist]

Won't agree or disagree with your comments on Pizza Shops, but Erie (and that general area) has a strong Italian community (at least it did when I lived there 20 yrs ago) and was known for getting "real" pizza from the many "hole in the wall" ma and pa shops as compared to the cookie cutter variety of today's corporate producers.

Don't know how the pizza biz there has changed in the last couple decades, but the little shops were the norm (and highly praised).

[Devil_Anse]

Yes, if this were done to intimidate there would be any number of people who could rat them out anonymously. But IMO, those people wouldn't. Instead, they'd probably think, "whew! not me this time... I will not get on THOSE guys' bad side!"

I mean, often when they have a homicide bombing in the middle east, some terror organization will take responsibility immediately. But just their taking responsibility doesn't seem to facilitate catching them.

It's a mind game, this intimidation stuff, and unless someone really has an ax to grind, or really thinks he is next on the list, I don't think the people in the know would tell on whoever did this--if whoever did this was some crime organization. Criminals usually choose certain types of victims; I think criminal organizations do, too. I would think this type of group would prey on people who weren't exactly free of criminal suspicion themselves. Such people are very unlikely to call police even when they are victimized.

[Sacajaweau]

We don't know what time the call came in. I assume the pizza joint has a business number. My business calls get logged as I pay a per minute rate for my office phone. Have they been able to trace where the call came from?

Lots we don't know.

He had TWO shirts on....one under and one over the bomb. Were they both his??

Some things just drive me nuts and we're hearing nothing about the phone or the shirts.

[Sacajaweau]

Go back and read what that witness said about watching him in his rearview. Does what he said make sense to you??

[Devil_Anse]

I think Wells was probably innocent, too, but he may have unwittingly gotten drawn into something illegal. For example, this Marilyn Torres, whose son hangs out in "The" garage, said that her son was an "associate" of Wells. Wells may have gone to that garage from time to time--maybe b/c he was interested in watching someone work on cars.

Many years ago, in New Orleans, there was a story about a woman who disappeared and was later found murdered. Before they found the body, one of her friends said, "She said she had seen something she wished she hadn't seen."

Maybe Wells inadvertantly saw someone with a large load of drugs.

One point you have, though. Some criminal organization didn't have to go through all this complicated mess to knock off a witness, and put the word out that it was dangerous to even know about the organization's activities.

Suddenly I am reminded of another true incident. There used to be a pizza place here. It was in the "Bohemian" section of town (if it can be called that.) There was a guy who had worked there for years, apparently behind the counter. One day he just disappeared. Suddenly there were posters with his face, name, etc., plastered all over town, asking anyone who knew his whereabouts to call police.

I had not known about this guy, nor had I ever been to the pizza place, but I was filled in on him by someone I know whose ex-spouse had dealt a lot of marijuana in the past. She told me that the missing guy was a big dealer--happened that marijuana was his particular product.

About a year later, when all the excitement had died down and the missing guy was given up, they were tearing down an abandoned apartment building. The missing guy's body was found stuffed in an outdoor closet (a closet that opened off a balcony belonging to one of the empty apartments.) It was said that he'd failed to pay up some money he owed someone.

[Devil_Anse]

You're right, that is confusing. The main thing I got out of it was that they were focusing on some guy, that this guy is not Marilyn Torres' son, and that this guy has a girlfriend who is a cousin of Wells. Hmmm.

[Devil_Anse]

So this Jimmy Johnson, whom the cops seem to be bearing down on, is the boyfriend of Wells' cousin? Well, then there's a connection...