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Breaking News

Gunman Shoots Way Into Credit Union in San Antonio, Texas

Aired May 21, 2002 - 10:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We do have more on that breaking news you were telling us about from San Antonio, how a gunman shot his way into a credit union in San Antonio, Texas. On the phone with us right now, we have sergeant Gabe Trevino.

Good morning, sergeant.

SGT. GABE TREVINO, SAN ANTONIO POLICE DEPT.: Good morning, sergeat.

Good morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm fine.

But you must be very worried. Tell us how this went down.

TREVINO: We received call a little after 7:00 for a person who was acting very threatening outside the bank, and at that point, we didn't know the person was armed, but before we could arrive, the guy actually shot at the window and doors of the bank, and actually gained entry, utilizing the shotgun that he had.

Once he got inside, we had a couple of bank employees enter the shelter.

COSTELLO: Are there two bank employees inside?

TREVINO: That's the information that we're gathering. The last we heard from them, they were inside of a utility closet, just trying to seek some safety in there. And then whether or not they're out now, we don't know, because they are just trying to establish some communication, with the person.

LIN: Sergeant, how did you hear that information, that they were inside the utility closet?

TREVINO: Well, we first got the 911 call from them inside the bank. And somehow between the time that they entered the closet, we received that information, I believe, from them themselves.

LIN: You've asked not to show the exact location of where this is going down for safety reasons.

TREVINO: Right. COSTELLO: Go ahead.

TREVINO: Well, we're concerned with our -- obviously our SWAT teams out here, and we want to make sure -- and there are some TV's just inside the bank, and we want to make sure if he's watching, that he doesn't have the advantage of knowing exaclty where our SWAT team is. Of course what we want to do is just establish some kind of communication with him, some dialogue, and get him to come out of the bank, and hopefully get everybody outside safe.

LIN: How are you trying to get ahold of him.

TREVINO: Well, we utilizing their phone system, but that's just not doing a whole lot of good at this point. So we have different means that we'll try to utilize, such as the bull horn and that sort of thing. But the best way would be certainly to use a phone line, and those are up and running, so we're hoping he will pick up the phone.

COSTELLO: If you can't get communication with him going, what's the recourse? Just to wait?

TREVINO: We're a very patient department. So, you know, we're in no rush. We want to make sure that if we can communicate with him, that we can get him out, that's fine. If we take several hours, we will do what it takes, we are not in any big rush, as long as nobody is in imminent danger of being hurt. So we're hoping just to wait him out for a little while.

COSTELLO: Tell us again what this credit union called in case family members are watching, or friends.

TREVINO: It's the San Antonio Federal Credit Union.

COSTELLO: Sergeant Gabe Trevino, thanks very much for joining us live from San Antonio. We'll let you get back to work.

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