Jul 26, 2008 10:59 pm US/Pacific
Robber's Gun Goes Off In Bank Heist Gone Awry
VAN NUYS
A would-be bank robber, tackled and wounded by his own weapon when he tried to hold up Wells Fargo branch in Van Nuys, was in custody Sunday.
A 20-year-old man, his mother and a former Israeli army soldier were among the people who piled on after a security guard tackled the suspect during the thwarted holdup about 12:30 p.m. Saturday at 6800 Van Nuys Blvd., according to police and broadcast reports.
Police withheld the suspect's name.
The robber walked into the bank wearing a wig, fake mustache and a suit, said a woman who identified herself to ABC7 only as Kat. She was waiting in a car for her son, Brendan, who was cashing a check, and followed the suspect inside, she said, because it was obvious a robbery was about to occur.
Inside the bank, the suspect pulled out a semiautomatic weapon -- perhaps an Uzi or Mac-10, witnesses said -- and the security guard tackled the gunman.
The weapon discharged, wounding the suspect, and Brendan and a man named Amir, who told Fox11 News he'd been in the Israeli Army, piled on. About that time, Kat came through the door and helped.
"It was a good knockdown fight between the security guard and the suspect," Los Angeles police Capt. Jim Miller said at the scene. "On its face, it appears that the suspect may have been beginning to gain the upper hand when the customers joined in to assist."
Bank patrol Juan Gonzalez told ABC7 that someone put the suspect in a chokehold.
The security guard had a few cuts on his face, but police said he appeared to be OK.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
