Bystander stops bank robbery

Status
Not open for further replies.

Preacherman

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2002
Messages
13,306
Location
Louisiana, USA
From the Memphis Commercial Appeal ( http://thecommercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5065537,00.html ):

Bank robbery foiled

By Alex Doniach and Pamela Perkins

October 14, 2006


14bank_o.jpg



Photo Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal

An American Savings Credit Union employee hugs Roscoe McVay, who police said shot one of two men attempting to rob the credit union at 3048 Harvester Lane. McVay runs a fruit stand in the parking lot on Fridays.



A man was shot in an apparent attempt to rob a credit union in Frayser Friday.

Two witnesses said a man selling fruit in the bank parking lot pulled a gun and shot the suspected robber.

Memphis police confirmed that the fruit vendor approached the suspects and shot one in the neck at the entrance of American Savings Credit Union, 3048 Harvester Lane.

Det. Monique Martin said two bank robbery suspects were arrested, but neither had been charged late Friday.

Police responded to the call about the shooting at 2:30 p.m., according to Lt. Darren Goods of the police robbery bureau. Officers found two men nearby. One had been shot and was taken to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis in critical condition.

Martin would not reveal the identity of the fruit vendor, but according to the accounts of witnesses, he was Roscoe McVay, who runs a fruit stand in the bank's parking lot on Fridays.

Friday evening, McVay confirmed that he sells fruit out of his truck on Fridays. He declined to comment on the incident.

A. L. Brown of South Memphis said he watched McVay enter the bank and fire a shot.

Brown said he and John Adkins of Bartlett saw the two suspects standing outside the entrance when they drove into the bank's parking lot.

"At first I thought the men were standing by a bus stop, but when I realized they were just waiting outside, I got suspicious," Adkins said.

Adkins said he waited in the parking lot as Brown entered the bank. He bought fruit from the vendor. Shortly after, he saw the vendor follow the two suspects into the bank's vestibule.

Inside the bank, Brown had finished his transaction. He noticed the two men, who were in the vestibule, approach the doors into the bank proper. But before they had a chance to enter, Brown said McVay took out a pistol and shot one of the suspects.

"I was about arm's length away from the shots," Brown said. "He shot him in the neck and I saw the man fall back."

Brown said the other patrons in the bank screamed.

"Most of the people got down on the floor," Brown said. "There were some babies in the bank and they were crying."

Adkins heard the shot and saw the two suspects run away with their shirts over their heads.

Martin said that as police were investigating the shooting a relative of one of the suspects attempted to enter the crime scene. He was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting officials detention.

The Safe Streets Task Force is investigating.
 
The news report seems to have omitted a lot of details. Were the suspects armed? Had they pulled weapons prior to the one being shot? Were they wearing something over their faces already?

The fact that they ran away with their shirts over their heads indicates that they almost definitely were there to rob the place. But the information given is insufficient to really determine whether or not Mr. McVay made the right decision, given the apparent circumstances.

Not that that'll stop the armchair speculators.
 
Looks good so far.

Sounds like McVay was really on his toes to figure out what was going on so early in the game.

I may send this link to work. One of my coworkers is black and he's afraid to carry, or even own a gun, because he thinks the police will hassle him. This in spite of the fact that he's ex-military.
 
The facts on this are a little vague. I assume it is just the usual lack of effort on a journalist to acquire all of the facts before submitting a story. I cetainly hope this guy does not have to face any trumped up charges. I also hope that he is not the victim of retribution. The police declined to identify him but apparently the reporter felt it was more important to find out who this guy was and make sure everyone knew who he was and where he could be found. It was probably easier to do that than to make the effort to find out if the robbers were armed and if so how, if they threatened anyone and other facts of this nature.

It's alway good to see the bad guys paying the price and not innocent people.
 
Martin would not reveal the identity of the fruit vendor, but according to the accounts of witnesses, he was Roscoe McVay, who runs a fruit stand in the bank's parking lot on Fridays.

Gee, another case of the police having the decency to keep someone's name quiet at least until the investigation is finished, and the papers deciding to make sure the suspects' families know who to go after for revenge.

Especially given this:
Martin said that as police were investigating the shooting a relative of one of the suspects attempted to enter the crime scene. He was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting officials detention.
 
There's a whole lot more to this story. Someone who just follows two "suspicious looking" men into a bank and shoots one of them would be in deep poo.
 
The article was pretty sloppily written - sounds like the guy just went after two guys for no reason, shot them, and it turned out that the two were going to rob the place. I'd like to see a more in-depth article on the subject.
 
If you are an active player in the event, are you a bystander?

From the article, Geronimo45 is right. There is nothing there to support the shooter being a hero and stopping a bank robbery. That all sounds like it is just what folks want to believe since there is nothing presented to indicate the two guys were attempting to rob the bank. Nobody in the bank knew there was a robbery in progress, at least not reported in the article. For all we know, it could have been a bad drug deal of some kind, retaliation for some other event, or any other host of things. The shot guy and his buddy may have run off with their shirts over their heads, but there was no idication they were hiding their identity on the way into the bank as might happen if they were going to rob the place. Lot's of folks with negative backgrounds will try to leave such events incognito, even if they didn't do anything wrong at the particular event, but can't afford to be speaking with the cops because of their prior events. In other words, fleeing incognito does not mean they were trying to rob the bank.

McVay was not arrested, but then again, the two arrested men were not charged. So as of the article, everything still seems up in the air.
 
I am not sure that the author of the article and the editor are all that literate. The story tied my brain in a knot as I tried to read it.

Clarity is a friend, not an enemy.

About all I was able to gather:
1) The bank was about to be robbed, but it had not happened yet.
2) The fruit vendor somehow (not stated in story) determined that the suspects in question were about to rob it and intervened, hitting one suspect in the neck.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top