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Criminal or Victim? Tragic Twist to Robbery

Aired September 01, 2003 - 13:15   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Criminal or victim? The FBI is trying to unravel the mystery in Erie, Pennsylvania. It all started Thursday, when police caught a pizza delivery man after a bank robbery, and discovered a bomb was strapped to his body.
CNN's Mike Brooks picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a bizarre crime that has baffled police since Thursday, when a man said he was forced to rob a western Pennsylvania bank by someone who strapped explosives to his body. Brian Douglas Wells had just delivered a pizza to a remote area, according to his boss. And an hour later, he showed up at the bank, strapped with a bomb and carrying a note.

KEN MCCABE, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It gave instructions to the bank employees on what they were supposed to do, and the bank employees complied with that. That note also contained instructions for what Mr. Wells was supposed to do, and he was in the process of following those instructions when the Pennsylvania State Police stopped him and placed him under arrest.

BROOKS: As police waited for bomb technicians to arrive, the bomb went off, killing Wells.

Now, authorities are investigating a second death, a co-worker at the same pizza delivery place found dead yesterday in his parents' home. Police had sent in a bomb team because of the connection, but nothing suspicious was found, and police now think the deaths are a coincidence.

Could they have saved the man with the bomb? In this case, not if it was armed with a timing mechanism.

MCCABE: As soon as they confirmed that he, in fact, had a bomb on him, they backed off, did a perimeter of at least 300 yards around him. They protected innocent lives. Police and agents are not trained to go and defuse a bomb. It's not like TV shows, where we go up and try to guess, do we cut the red wire or the green wire? It's too dangerous.

And this bomb that was wrapped around the -- Mr. Wells's neck is the most dangerous type of bombing that a bomb tech has to respond to, because it entails actually approaching and doing a hand entry into the device to render it safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKS: The Pennsylvania State Police and the district attorney's office are planning a press conference for tomorrow after the toxicology reports are completed. Hopefully, they'll be able to shed more light on this bizarre case, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So the bomb that was on this man, did he put it there? Did he say someone put it on him? Did it look like there were signs of a struggle?

BROOKS: Well, they don't know. They don't know if he acted alone, if someone else was doing this with him, if someone actually at this remote pizza delivery site put something on him. But the law enforcement sources told me that the coroner says that there were no signs of struggle whatsoever, no bruising, no scraped knees.

And if someone was delivering a pizza into a house and someone grabbed him and pulled him into the house, there would be some kind of signs of a struggle on the person's body, most likely. So right now, it would be -- it's tough to speculate, but all of the leads that the FBI and this Pennsylvania State Police now are playing out, none of them add up or lead anywhere, law enforcement sources are telling me.

PHILLIPS: All right, so you have two pizza workers who are now dead. Do we know if they had a relationship, if they were friends, if there were issues there?

BROOKS: They're apparently friends and co-workers. But right now, they're -- looks like there's no link between the two, more than just friends and co-worker.

The man who was found dead in his home by his parents, he lived at home with his parents, 43-year-old pizza delivery man, they would not say exactly if he had any kind of medical history. He didn't appear to be in great health. But right now, we're waiting for the toxicology reports to come back, and tomorrow's press conference should shed a lot more light on this.

PHILLIPS: And the other man with the bomb strapped to him, I mean, could it have been suicide?

BROOKS: It could have been, and that's one of the theories. You know, that's one of the five theories the special agent in charge this morning, we talked to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) McCabe, talked about different theories. They would only -- he wouldn't go into exactly what the theories were, but that's one of them, that it could have just been suicide.

But we'll find out a little more as the investigation continues.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mike Brooks, thank you.

BROOKS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 1, 2003 - 13:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Criminal or victim? The FBI is trying to unravel the mystery in Erie, Pennsylvania. It all started Thursday, when police caught a pizza delivery man after a bank robbery, and discovered a bomb was strapped to his body.
CNN's Mike Brooks picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a bizarre crime that has baffled police since Thursday, when a man said he was forced to rob a western Pennsylvania bank by someone who strapped explosives to his body. Brian Douglas Wells had just delivered a pizza to a remote area, according to his boss. And an hour later, he showed up at the bank, strapped with a bomb and carrying a note.

KEN MCCABE, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It gave instructions to the bank employees on what they were supposed to do, and the bank employees complied with that. That note also contained instructions for what Mr. Wells was supposed to do, and he was in the process of following those instructions when the Pennsylvania State Police stopped him and placed him under arrest.

BROOKS: As police waited for bomb technicians to arrive, the bomb went off, killing Wells.

Now, authorities are investigating a second death, a co-worker at the same pizza delivery place found dead yesterday in his parents' home. Police had sent in a bomb team because of the connection, but nothing suspicious was found, and police now think the deaths are a coincidence.

Could they have saved the man with the bomb? In this case, not if it was armed with a timing mechanism.

MCCABE: As soon as they confirmed that he, in fact, had a bomb on him, they backed off, did a perimeter of at least 300 yards around him. They protected innocent lives. Police and agents are not trained to go and defuse a bomb. It's not like TV shows, where we go up and try to guess, do we cut the red wire or the green wire? It's too dangerous.

And this bomb that was wrapped around the -- Mr. Wells's neck is the most dangerous type of bombing that a bomb tech has to respond to, because it entails actually approaching and doing a hand entry into the device to render it safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKS: The Pennsylvania State Police and the district attorney's office are planning a press conference for tomorrow after the toxicology reports are completed. Hopefully, they'll be able to shed more light on this bizarre case, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So the bomb that was on this man, did he put it there? Did he say someone put it on him? Did it look like there were signs of a struggle?

BROOKS: Well, they don't know. They don't know if he acted alone, if someone else was doing this with him, if someone actually at this remote pizza delivery site put something on him. But the law enforcement sources told me that the coroner says that there were no signs of struggle whatsoever, no bruising, no scraped knees.

And if someone was delivering a pizza into a house and someone grabbed him and pulled him into the house, there would be some kind of signs of a struggle on the person's body, most likely. So right now, it would be -- it's tough to speculate, but all of the leads that the FBI and this Pennsylvania State Police now are playing out, none of them add up or lead anywhere, law enforcement sources are telling me.

PHILLIPS: All right, so you have two pizza workers who are now dead. Do we know if they had a relationship, if they were friends, if there were issues there?

BROOKS: They're apparently friends and co-workers. But right now, they're -- looks like there's no link between the two, more than just friends and co-worker.

The man who was found dead in his home by his parents, he lived at home with his parents, 43-year-old pizza delivery man, they would not say exactly if he had any kind of medical history. He didn't appear to be in great health. But right now, we're waiting for the toxicology reports to come back, and tomorrow's press conference should shed a lot more light on this.

PHILLIPS: And the other man with the bomb strapped to him, I mean, could it have been suicide?

BROOKS: It could have been, and that's one of the theories. You know, that's one of the five theories the special agent in charge this morning, we talked to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) McCabe, talked about different theories. They would only -- he wouldn't go into exactly what the theories were, but that's one of them, that it could have just been suicide.

But we'll find out a little more as the investigation continues.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mike Brooks, thank you.

BROOKS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com