Web posted Saturday, September 5, 1998

Shawnee Police Lt. Conny Clay, left; Lt. Charlie Phillips, center; and Detective Greg Gibson discuss the situation after a shoot-out with police Friday afternoon left a bank robber dead. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations Agent Mike Collins and Shawnee Police Detective Johnny Moody, far right, continued to search the scene for a possible bomb. Ed Blochowiak/SNS

Officers kill robber

By SHANA SALLASKA and MICHELLE BOYD WATERS
SNS Staff Writers

A bank robber died Friday afternoon in a hail of gunfire after demanding cash from a local bank, taking an employee hostage, threatening to detonate a bomb and leading Shawnee Police Department officers on a chase that ended north of town.

Police Chief Hank Land said police officers shot the man who robbed The First National Bank, 130 E. MacArthur, after hearing gunfire from within the Buick Century in which the robber had made his getaway. The shooting occurred at North Harrison and Westech Road.

Officers' shots killed the robber, but the hostage, bank Vice President Dale Klingensmith, was protected from injury by the body of the man. Klingensmith told officers of the bomb threat when he exited the car after the shooting.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol and FBI bomb technicians examined the scene for several hours after the shooting, but determined that the device was not a real bomb.

"It was items that were put together to make it look like a bomb," FBI Special Agent Walt Lamar told The Associated Press.

Land said five Shawnee officers fired at the suspect inside the Century. Sgt. Johnny Moody, Lt. Wayne Crall, Cpl. Raymond Vague, Patrolman Kent Borcherding and Patrolman Ken King have been suspended and placed on administrative leave until a review board can consider the case. The suspension and review are routine procedures taken when an officer has shot someone, Land said.

Lt. Conny Clay said Vague fired a shotgun while the other officers fired their service pistols.

Bank President Larry Briggs said he called police from the bank sometime after 2 p.m. while the robber was waiting for money inside Klingensmith's office.

The robber left the bank with Klingensmith and three police officers arrived as the two were leaving the bank parking lot in the vice president's vehicle.

Police followed the Century in a low-speed pursuit north on Union, turned left onto 45th and headed to Kickapoo. The loan officer drove north on Kickapoo to EW 111, turned right onto Harrison, then headed east on Westech Road.

Klingensmith turned around in a residential area and headed back toward Harrison, Land said.

Officers stopped the vehicle using stop sticks to blow out the vehicle's tires near the Harrison intersection.

Land said preliminary reports indicate a scuffle began inside the car and the police chief believed that a gun shot was fired from the car.

Police officers returned fire, hitting the suspect.

Land said he did not know how many shots officers fired or how many hit the suspect.

The police chief said he did not know how much cash the robber stole.

The identity of the robber had not yet been determined at press time.

The bank robbery is the second to occur in Shawnee in a little more than three months. American National Bank, 4500 N. Harrison, was robbed on May 21.