FBI Raids Erie Home After Man's Bombing Death

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

[Calpernia]

I found a picture of the homemade gun described about. It is posted here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/976845/posts?page=5#5

[Criminal Number 18F]

Really. I took it that, here is this guy in Erie, PA, for crying out loud, and he shows up with not one but two weapons out of a James Bond film.

The Erie PD being somewhat short of 00-executives at this time, the guy gets blown to Kingdom Come.

I mean, if it was Vienna or Helsinki, that would be one thing. Washington or New York, even... but Erie? That's eerie. I keep waiting for the second scene to start, where Bond is in the hot tub with the girl and the phone starts ringing...

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Calpernia]

I was confused by that myself. But reread the info again. Wells didn't pull the pin:

>>> 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. I think it is written that way to be confusing.

[livius]

One of the witnesses described the "cane" as having three buttons along the side. It also wasn't clear to me if this was a wooden cane (such as that carried by an older person), or an aluminum walking cane (such as that carried by people who have had a temporary injury).

[Calpernia]

>>>One of the witnesses described the "cane" as having three buttons along the side. It also wasn't clear to me if this was a wooden cane (such as that carried by an older person), or an aluminum walking cane (such as that carried by people who have had a temporary injury).

I don't think those types of details would be released. That would be more 'material' for a trial. I just went on google and did a search for homemade gun + cane and this was the first site to come up (URL posted with my response above).

This is a picture that was on the site though.

[Devil_Anse]

I had wondered why Wells didn't try to tell the police where to find the person or persons who could unlock the bomb collar. I chalked it up to his panic. But it turns out he DID try to tell them this, according to one of the articles posted above. It says he told the cops, "Let me tell you where to go to get the keys". Keys. Weren't there multiple key locks on the collar, in addition to the combination lock? I am thinking that maybe it required 3 keys, in addition to the combination, to get it unlocked. If so, it seems obvious that whoever put it on never intended for it to be taken off Wells. The article makes it sound as though the 3 keys--if there were 3 separate keys--were in 3 different places.

Someone pointed out that the people whose garage was searched (their names are Torres and Feliciano) had Spanish-sounding names--and the poster astutely pointed out that some have considered a Colombian connection. That was a good insight; however, I notice from reading the ages of the people mentioned that this Marilyn Torres had her son at the age of 16. B/C of that, she sounds as American as apple pie to me. I hate to knock my own country, but let's face it, we are now a country full of splintered families and non-families, and of mothers who seem like they're in the same generation with their children.

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks, grizzfan! Read the linked articles, they're good.

[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 delivery man killed in a bomb explosion after a bank robbery said she was shown a picture 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.

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

FBI agent Bill Crowley, who is acting as a spokesman for the investigation in northwestern Pennsylvania, would not comment on any aspect of the search.

Police, meanwhile, maintain that they responded quickly before Brian Douglas Wells died Aug. 28 when a bomb that hung from a locked, metal collar around his neck exploded. Wells, a 46-year-old pizza deliveryman, asked police to help him get the bomb off, saying someone made him rob the bank.

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. Wells 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 McDonalds, 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 5, 2003 7:35 PM

[stlnative]

FROM #68

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.


I now believe someone strapped this bomb on him and that he only had a certain amount of time to rob the bank, and possibly get to a drop point to drop the money and to get a key that would cut off the timer on the bomb along with the combo to remove it from his neck. Unfortunately he was too slow and was caught by the cops while he sat in the McD parking reading the 9 pages page letter, he probably got far enough to know where the key was to turn the timer off, put the cops showed up. This almost sound like combo... of "PhoneBooth" and "24". It sounds like a game as the robber had him only ask for $250,000 when he robbed the bank. Let me ask you FReepers this, what AMERICAN would do this (go through all the troble of making a bomb, finding someone to strap it on and giving him a 9 page note to read and have the victim demand ONLY $250,000 during the robbery???

[stlnative]

see 69

[stlnative]

the >>>bombmaker<<< had

[stlnative]

Something is not right about the bomb maker having his victim ask for only $250,000 when he had him rob the bank.

Do you remember how the 9/11 terrorists actually wired back money to their instructor before they hopped on those planes? (they did not use all the money while planning the 9/11 attack while they were in the USA).

[stlnative]

Ping - personally to me this story is looking more and more like someone really did strap the bomb to him and I doubt he knew the person who strapped it on him. I just don't understand why the bombmaker had Wells only demand $250,000 when he had him rob the bank?

[Devil_Anse]

A very disturbed American? I agree, there might well be a foreign connection. I would think more of the South American drug trade, though, than of middle easterners, because so many people have astutely pointed out that these bombs have been used by Colombian drug traders.

I'm just thinking that this Marilyn Torres, and her boyfriend (Feliciano) probably are Americans, not Colombians. I mean, I don't think THEY were behind it--though the FBI seems to think that the person behind it may have been a guest at their garage. (Their garage sounds like a real busy place!)

Either the timer malfunctioned, or was set wrong, or the person who set it never intended for Wells to live, b/c it seems anyone would have seen that the 40 minutes or so was nowhere near enough time for Wells to rob the bank, make a getaway, and read that treatise-like note. If the person who composed the note was not American, you can be sure that the FBI has probably noted peculiarities of speech in the way the note was written.

One thing that makes the whole thing sound kind of amateurish is that the bank couldn't get all the money together, b/c apparently the vault is set so they can't open it till 3 p.m. And this poor fool Wells tells the teller, "Okay, I'll come back for the rest of the money." !!

Seems like a more savvy planner would have known when the bank opens its vault, and would have timed the robbery for that time. Did you hear that one of the bank tellers said she was the girlfriend of a co-worker of Wells? (They didn't say if that co-worker was the same one as the one who died after Wells got blown up.)

[Calpernia]

>>>Colombian connection

BUMP!

[Devil_Anse]

Hey, maybe Torres was a married name of this Marilyn woman--but Feliciano is likely to have been her boyfriend's first and only name, so maybe HE is the foreign-born one??

[potlatch]

I'm sure you already found this!??

[HoHoeHeaux]

If you have a ping for this, please add me!

[Calpernia]

What makes you think there isn't a connection between the Colombians and the Middle Eastern countries?

[Devil_Anse]

I don't know about the $250,000. It does seem amateurish, I guess. And we know these middle eastern fanatic types are not the sharpest knives in the drawer--I mean, look at that fiasco where one of the hijackers left his copy of the Koran in a strip club, shortly before 9/11.

But maybe the person knew that most of the cash was inaccessible (in vault) and therefore asked for less? I mean, every day there are bank robberies in which the robbers get away with only a few thousand dollars!

Doesn't it seem like the person who did this to Wells was more interested in controlling and terrifying another human being, than in getting money? I mean, it was a plan which was very unlikely to be carried through all the way. Wells might have gotten back to the "mastermind" with the money just at the time the bomb went off! Then they'd both be dead!