{"id":394988,"date":"2010-03-05T18:03:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T23:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a904d0c9970b"},"modified":"2010-03-05T20:49:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T01:49:21","slug":"3-shot-during-attempted-long-beach-bank-robbery-gunman-is-among-the-wounded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/394988","title":{"rendered":"3 shot during attempted Long Beach bank robbery; gunman is among the wounded"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/embed><\/p>\n

Security guards and a customer restrained a gunman after a shootout at a Long Beach bank this morning.<\/p>\n

Authorities released few details, but KTLA News quoted sources as
\nsaying that three people were shot and that the gunman was in custody.
\nLong Beach Police Department officials confirmed a bank robbery had
\noccurred and that a suspect was wounded, but they declined to give further details.<\/p>\n

The wounded, including\u00a0the suspected robber, were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, said Lisa Massacani, a spokeswoman
\nfor the Long Beach Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"La-me-bank-robbery\"<\/img><\/a> Police responded to a report of a robbery at the Farmers & Merchants bank on Bellflower Boulevard near the 405 Freeway about 10:30 a.m., Massacani said. The bank is near the Los Altos shopping center, a bustling marketplace that has a Sears, Trader Joe’s and Target. <\/p>\n

Witnesses described a dramatic scene.<\/p>\n

Southern California Edison meter reader Alice Ramirez told The Times
\nthat she was making her rounds at 10:30 a.m. and was about to open the door
\nof the bank to read its meter when she heard four gunshots. At first it
\nsounded like heavy hammering and I thought it was construction work.
\nThen I looked through the glass and saw at least three people lying on
\nthe floor. I ran out to the parking lot and saw two people in cars and
\nyelled, \u2018I just heard gunshots,\u2019 called 911.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ramirez said a few moments later a man emerged from the bank,
\nmotioning with his hands and shouting,
\n\u201cThose were gunshots. Go, go, go!\u201d <\/p>\n

Police investigators were interviewing about 15 bank employees and
\ncustomers just outside the entrance. Some of them were obviously shaken,
\n teary-eyed and being consoled by friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n

As his daughter, a clerk at the bank, was being interviewed by
\ninvestigators, Jesus Obeso, 62, waited just outside the yellow police
\ntape staring at the bank building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter said a man entered wearing a motorcycle helmet. But he
\ndidn\u2019t take it off. Then she heard the gunshots and like everyone else
\nshe fell to the floor. She said a customer ran out and grabbed the
\nshooter from behind, holding tight and yelling, \u2018I need help, I need
\nhelp!\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Obeso’s daughter told him that security officers grabbed the man and that
\neveryone was running out of the building. Police arrived with shotguns,
\nand customers shouted at them, \u201cGo inside; they caught him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Obeso said his daughter was not wounded by gunfire and was in good condition, although she was shaken. Law enforcement personnel wearing shirts with the word
\n\u201cforensics\u201d could be seen entering and leaving the bank. <\/p>\n

Strewn across the bank floor were a red motorcycle helmet, gloves, a
\ngun holster and shell casings.<\/p>\n

Bill Brant, 45, of Lakewood was working in his garden Friday morning when\u00a0 his ex-wife called and said\u00a0 there was a shooting at the bank, where\u00a0 his mother\u00a0 worked as a teller.<\/p>\n

Brant’s mind immediately went to the worst possibility: that his mother had been wounded.<\/p>\n

He rushed to the bank and found out his mother, Nancy Brant, was fine. He was able to cross police lines and talk to her.<\/p>\n

"She’s fine, but she was just shaken up."<\/p>\n

After they spoke, police took his mother back into the bank for more questioning. Brant waited on the sidewalk, breaking down in tears. <\/p>\n

He said Nancy Brant has worked as a teller at the bank for nine years, and that he’s worried about her every day when she goes to work, mostly because he said the bank does not have protective glass shields around\u00a0\u00a0 the tellers.<\/p>\n

"You never know what’s going to happen," he said.<\/p>\n

— Louis Sahagun and My-Thuan Tran in Long Beach<\/p>\n

Photo: KTLA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Security guards and a customer restrained a gunman after a shootout at a Long Beach bank this morning. Authorities released few details, but KTLA News quoted sources as saying that three people were shot and that the gunman was in custody. Long Beach Police Department officials confirmed a bank robbery had occurred and that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}