Suspect in attempted armed robbery found at hospital
CENTRALIA, Wash. -- Police say they have found a man suspected of threatening a teller at a credit union with a knife and a gun on Monday.
On Monday night police located a man being treated for two gunshot wounds at St. Peter's Hospital. Investigators believe he had taken a cab to the hospital from Centralia.
Officials said the wounded man matches the description of the armed man at the credit union.
Investigators had been searching all day for an armed man who broke into the TwinStar Credit Union early Monday morning before employees arrived.
The bank has a security procedure that requires two employees to arrive before anyone goes inside. One person is supposed to go into the building to make sure everything is secure, then call outside to the other employee.
Police said an employee entered the bank just before 7 a.m. and was on the phone with another employee who was waiting outside. When the woman stepped into the bank, the man who broke in pointed a gun at her head and held a knife to her throat.
She dropped her phone and screamed, and the employee who was waiting outside called 911.
The first officer to arrive at the credit union at 1320 South Gold Street encountered the employee at the door, and she she mouthed the words "he's got a gun."
The officer pulled the woman outside and saw a man holding a gun in the building.
Officer John Panco said the officer fired two shots when the armed man approached the door. The officer quickly backed off and got the employee away from the building.
A SWAT team surrounded the credit union and spent hours trying to reach the man they thought was inside.
They called on a phone, used loudspeakers, and even broadcasted a message over a local radio station that was playing inside the bank, but there was no response.
Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg said negotiators were watching a live feed from inside the bank and thought they saw shoes peeking out from under a desk, and they believed the armed man was hiding there.
At about 11:15 a.m. the SWAT team fired several stun grenades into the bank and, after still getting no response, went inside and found the building empty.
The "feet" that police thought they saw on the camera turned out to just be boxes under the manager's desk.
"It looked like to us it was possibly a pair of feet sticking out from under a desk and one of our swat officers thought he saw movement in one of the blinds from the inside," Berg said.
Investigators believe the man slipped out a broken window immediately after the first officer on the scene shot at him, before the building was surrounded.
"Based on the best information we had when we arrived here we thought we had the perimeter contained and that's just the way it is," Berg said.
The man who was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Sgt. Chris Fitzgerald said the man is refusing to cooperate with investigators.
Investigators hope to match DNA from the man to blood left at the credit union.
On Monday night police located a man being treated for two gunshot wounds at St. Peter's Hospital. Investigators believe he had taken a cab to the hospital from Centralia.
Officials said the wounded man matches the description of the armed man at the credit union.
Investigators had been searching all day for an armed man who broke into the TwinStar Credit Union early Monday morning before employees arrived.
The bank has a security procedure that requires two employees to arrive before anyone goes inside. One person is supposed to go into the building to make sure everything is secure, then call outside to the other employee.
Police said an employee entered the bank just before 7 a.m. and was on the phone with another employee who was waiting outside. When the woman stepped into the bank, the man who broke in pointed a gun at her head and held a knife to her throat.
She dropped her phone and screamed, and the employee who was waiting outside called 911.
The first officer to arrive at the credit union at 1320 South Gold Street encountered the employee at the door, and she she mouthed the words "he's got a gun."
The officer pulled the woman outside and saw a man holding a gun in the building.
Officer John Panco said the officer fired two shots when the armed man approached the door. The officer quickly backed off and got the employee away from the building.
A SWAT team surrounded the credit union and spent hours trying to reach the man they thought was inside.
They called on a phone, used loudspeakers, and even broadcasted a message over a local radio station that was playing inside the bank, but there was no response.
Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg said negotiators were watching a live feed from inside the bank and thought they saw shoes peeking out from under a desk, and they believed the armed man was hiding there.
At about 11:15 a.m. the SWAT team fired several stun grenades into the bank and, after still getting no response, went inside and found the building empty.
The "feet" that police thought they saw on the camera turned out to just be boxes under the manager's desk.
"It looked like to us it was possibly a pair of feet sticking out from under a desk and one of our swat officers thought he saw movement in one of the blinds from the inside," Berg said.
Investigators believe the man slipped out a broken window immediately after the first officer on the scene shot at him, before the building was surrounded.
"Based on the best information we had when we arrived here we thought we had the perimeter contained and that's just the way it is," Berg said.
The man who was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Sgt. Chris Fitzgerald said the man is refusing to cooperate with investigators.
Investigators hope to match DNA from the man to blood left at the credit union.