SWAT team storms Louisiana bank, kills gunman who fatally shot hostage
 Rogelio V. Solis / AP
The Tensas State Bank branch in St. Joseph, La., was the scene of a 12-hour standoff.
By Henry Austin and Andrew Rafferty, NBC News
A police SWAT team stormed a rural Louisiana bank early Wednesday, killing a gunman after he fatally shot one hostage and critically injured another, in a dramatic 12-hour standoff.
The suspect – identified by police as 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed – took two women and a man captive in the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, La., at about 12:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson.
Bank teller Patricia White was freed unharmed after about nine hours, State Police spokesman Albert Paxton added.
However, as police tried to negotiate the release of the other two people, Ahmed allegedly told officers that he was going to kill them.
Shortly after he made his threat, a SWAT team stormed the bank around midnight, Paxton added. Reuters reported that both remaining hostages were shot when police entered the building.
Edmonson said Ahmed's two hostages suffered gunshot wounds to the upper body. They were taken from the scene in critical condition but one later died at a hospital.
The hostages were previously identified as one woman and one man, Reuters reported.
Paxton added that Ahmed was a paranoid schizophrenic and that he had made a number of demands, including removing a device from his head so he could stop hearing voices.
He added that investigators were convinced that the situation was not a bank robbery attempt but a planned attack.
They found notes in Ahmed's apartment indicating his intentions, he said. Paxton added that the suspect said he wanted to "cause pain."
Edmonson said that the gunman "was mad at people that he said were mean to him."
Ahmed was born in California to Yemeni parents, according to officials.
NBC affiliate KTVE reported that he was armed with a handgun, but it was not known whether he had other weapons.
NBC News' Christopher Nelson, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report |
