Four Employees, One Customer Killed
NORFOLK, Neb. (CNN) -- A fourth suspect in a deadly bank robbery was captured by police and was to be charged along with three others with first-degree murder, authorities said Friday.
The men are suspected of holding up a branch of the U.S. Bank in this small rural town Thursday, killing four women and a man.
Norfolk police chief Bill Mizner said the fourth suspect -- Gabriel Rodriguez, 26 -- was taken into custody around midnight Thursday night, after the car he was believed to be driving was located on a street in a residential part of Norfolk.
The other three suspects were identified as Jose Sandoval, 23; Jorge Galindo, 21; and Eric Fernando Vela, also 21, said Madison County Attorney Joe Smith.
Authorities said they lifted roadblocks they had set up around the state late Thursday afternoon.
Four bank employees and a customer were pronounced dead at the scene, Mizner said.
He identified them as:
Evonne Tuttle, 37, of Stanton.
Lola Elwood, 43, of Norfolk.
Jo Mausbach, 42, of Humphrey.
Lisa Bryant, 29, of Norfolk.
Samuel Sun, 50, of Norfolk.
Another customer was shot and wounded while walking out of the bank when gunfire blew out the glass doors, Mizner said. That person was treated at a hospital and released, he said.
At least one bullet shattered a restaurant window next door.
“I screamed and said, ‘My God, I think somebody shot the building!’” Donna Schwager, a Burger King cashier who had been working near the window, told The Associated Press. “The good Lord was looking out for me today.”
The suspects were taken to Madison County, where a bond hearing will be held Friday. Smith said he would ask that they be held without bond.
Witnesses told police they saw three men running down an alley away from the bank shortly after shots were heard coming from the building, Mizner said.
The suspects then entered a nearby house and stole the residents’ 2003 white Subaru Outback, he said.
Hours later the vehicle was recovered in Meadow Grove, 16 miles from Norfolk, and police apprehended three suspects in the city of O’Neill, 70 miles from the robbery, Mizner said.
They were in a pickup truck that was stolen from an area not far from where the Subaru was found, said Norfolk Mayor Gordon Adams.
“Circumstantially, it would appear we probably have the people,” Adams said. “We don’t have much in the way of physical description (of the suspects) because they just shot everyone who was there.”
FBI agents, Nebraska State Patrol troopers and Norfolk police officers traveled to O’Neill to question the three men apprehended.
Terry Teuber, spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol, had initially described the three suspects as “three Hispanic males dressed in dark blue clothing.” The three men picked up later generally matched that description, officials said.
Authorities did not disclose how much money was taken.
The stolen Subaru was equipped with an OnStar navigation and communication system that police used to locate it, said Cmdr. Brad Rice of the Nebraska State Patrol. It was impounded and was being processed as a crime scene.
Authorities were planning to review videotapes from bank cameras, though the process is complex, Mizner said. “It may be some time yet before we’re able to accomplish that.”
This normally quiet rural farm community of 25,000, northwest of Omaha is the hometown of comedian Johnny Carson.
“What a sad, sad day,” said Gov. Mike Johanns at a news conference.
He also tried to reassure the Hispanic community after receiving phone calls from people concerned about a backlash.
“I want to do every thing I can to assure them that they don’t have to be concerned. That Nebraskans are very, very reasonable people,” the governor said. “I think Nebraskans are anxious to hear the facts.”