The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Fatman on June 04, 2009, 03:09:56 PM
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Wonderful times we live in. And people wonder why armored car guards get real nasty real fast when approached while they are working.
Four suspects held in armored-car shooting death at Lakewood Wal-Mart
By The Associated Press
LAKEWOOD, Pierce County — Four people have been arrested in the "coldblooded" slaying of an armored-car guard as he carried a money bag out of a bank branch inside the Lakewood Wal-Mart, police said Wednesday.
One was a Wal-Mart employee on duty during the robbery.
A 37-year-old man believed to be the gunman and a 20-year-old man believed to be the second person shown on surveillance footage of the Tuesday afternoon robbery were arrested Wednesday, Lakewood police Lt. Heidi Hoffman told a news conference.
Arrested Tuesday night were a 41-year-old man thought to be the getaway driver and the 42-year-old female Wal-Mart employee.
All four were arrested for investigation of homicide, robbery and assault.
Loomis security guard Kurt Husted, 39, was shot in the head while leaving the Anchor Bank branch. The same bullet also wounded a customer.
Hoffman said surveillance video of the robbery makes it clear the shooter made no attempt to take the money without violence.
"They just walked up and executed him," she said. "It was very violent, very coldblooded."
Police recovered about two-thirds of the money, as well as a gun that was being tested. Hoffman wouldn't specify the amount taken but said it was in five figures.
The male customer wounded in the shoulder, Wilbert Pena, said he was in the store with his 15-month-old son when he heard the shot and lurched forward. The child was not injured.
"In four seconds, someone died and I got shot," Pena told KIRO-TV.
"It was just straight cold," he said of the killing. "They didn't give the guy a chance."
Two of the people arrested are related. Hoffman described the four as conspiring to rob the guard.
"We believe that the Wal-Mart employee gave information to the other people involved as to the comings and goings of that Loomis armored truck," she said. "I can't say who was the mastermind, we haven't gotten that far yet, but there were at least these four involved."
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the police statement that a store employee was involved.
"Our condolences go out to the guard's family," spokesman Greg Rossiter said in a phone interview from Bentonville, Ark. Rossiter added all employees' backgrounds are checked before hiring.
Prosecutors have yet to formally charge any of those arrested. Lakewood police detectives plan to meet with prosecutors this morning. to lay out their case.
More arrests could be forthcoming in the multiagency investigation, which includes the FBI, Hoffman said.
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company