by Tim Rowden, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
* Robber held woman during two-state chase, but he was captured without anyone being hurt.
David Frank had a choice: make a move against Zachariah Bell and risk shooting a hostage or stand down and let him drive away.
Frank, a Jefferson County deputy sheriff, chose to let him go.
For his actions after the robbery Jan. 18 at the Farmers’ Bank branch on Old Highway 21 in Shady Valley, Frank and Sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Hawkins recently received the Missouri Sheriff’s Association Deputy Sheriffs of the Year Award for 2002. They also received the department’s Distinguished Service Award.
“They did an excellent job under some very strenuous conditions,” Jefferson County Sheriff Oliver “Glenn” Boyer said. “I think their actions speak well for not only themselves but for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department as well.”
Frank had just arrived on the bank’s parking lot when Bell came out of the building holding bank customer Angela Voiles in front of him as a shield.
Police said Bell had been in the process of robbing the bank when a passing Shady Valley firefighter in a marked car noticed employees with their hands up and drove back for a better look. Bell apparently mistook the car for a police cruiser and took Voiles hostage.
Voiles, 28, mother of two children, worked at a gas station down the road and stopped at the bank to cash her paycheck. Bell dragged her outside as Frank was pulling onto the lot.
“He told me to drop my gun,” Frank said. “I told him ‘No.’”
Frank said he couldn’t make a move without risking injury to Voiles.
Bell forced Voiles into her Pontiac Sunbird and sped away as Frank sprinted to his car and broadcast a description of the vehicle over the radio.
Hawkins was on the way to the bank and passed the Sunbird on Highway 21 as Frank’s description of the vehicle came over the radio. He turned around and began chasing the car.
As they raced along, Hawkins said he saw Bell raise the pistol and point it at Voiles.
Bell forced Voiles to call police on her cellular telephone. He told her to tell the dispatcher that he wanted the officer behind him to back off.
Hawkins fell back but continued the pursuit. “I wasn’t leaving my hostage out there,” he said.
Hawkins radioed the dispatch center with the location and direction of travel.
The cars raced across Highway 21 to Highway M and north onto Interstate 55 at speeds reported up to 100 mph. The Highway Patrol and various municipal police departments joined the chase along the way.
Bell led police into Illinois, back across the river to downtown St. Louis and west on Interstate 70 to Jennings, where he collided with other cars before careening down an embankment.
It was there, while Bell held the gun to Voiles’ head, that police were able to persuade him to release her and surrender.
“It was basically a standoff,” Hawkins said. “He had many, many weapons aimed at him. But he had the most dangerous weapon of all because it was aimed at our hostage.”
Bell, 25, a divorced carpenter from Fenton, pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of armed robbery and one coun t of kidnapping. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
After her release Voiles told a reporter that Bell had recognized her from her job at the gas station and promised not to hurt her.
Frank, 29, has been with the Sheriff’s Department for seven years. Hawkins, 36, is an 11-year veteran. They work out of the department’s East Zone Office in Imperial.
“This was the granddaddy of all calls,” Hawkins said “You hope you never face an incident like this. But when you do, you deal with it the be st that you can, and you pray for a happy ending.”