{"id":394996,"date":"2010-03-05T14:59:59","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T19:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310f6acc5a970c"},"modified":"2010-03-05T17:17:15","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T22:17:15","slug":"dramatic-moment-amid-gunfire-at-long-beach-bank-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/394996","title":{"rendered":"Dramatic moment amid gunfire at Long Beach bank [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Three people were shot and wounded during an attempted robbery at a Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach Friday, authorities said.<\/p>\n

[Updated at 1:10 p.m.:<\/strong> 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 for the Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Police responded to a report of a robbery at the bank on Bellflower Boulevard about 10:30 a.m., Massacani said.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Southern California Edison meter reader Alice Ramirez told The Times that she was making her rounds at 10:30 a.m. and about to open the door of the bank to read its meter when \u201cI heard four gunshots. At first it sounded like heavy hammering and I thought it was construction work. Then I looked through the glass and saw at least three people lying on the floor. I ran out to the parking lot and saw two people in cars and yelled, \u2018I just heard gunshots,\u2019 called 911.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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

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 but declined to give further details.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

Obeso said his daughter was in good condition, complaining only of some discomfort. Law enforcement personnel wearing shirts with the word \u201cforensics\u201d could be seen entering and leaving the bank. <\/p>\n

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

— Louis Sahagun and My-Thuan Tran in Long Beach<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three people were shot and wounded during an attempted robbery at a Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach Friday, authorities said. [Updated at 1:10 p.m.: 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 for the Police Department.\u00a0\u00a0 Police responded […]<\/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-394996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394996","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=394996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}