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Erie Mystery: New Details

Aired September 08, 2003 - 15:40   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: In Erie, Pennsylvania, the probe deepens into the mysterious death of that pizza delivery man. He was killed by an explosive collar after robbing a bank.
The FBI gave new details in this case just a few minutes ago, and CNN's Mike Brooks has been following the case, joins us here on set now.

All of a sudden, now we're seeing pictures and boards like a power Powerpoint presentation versus just an informational conference.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very unusual. They said they were going to put information out today, and they got -- definitely got into the specifics.

They talked about a detailed note that they had, that they found after the robbery and the detailed instructions for Brian Wells, what to do after he committed the robbery.

We just got back from Erie, and when I was there, one of my big questions was why did he sit in the parking lot of the McDonald's? There was a 911 call that came in and it says, there's a -- the guy who just robbed the bank with the bomb around his neck, he's sitting in the parking lot of the McDonald's. And the McDonald's is literally a half block down the street from the bank. But what investigators are telling us now, that in one of the pictures that -- in the third picture they showed, it was the drive-thru McDonald's signs, he was supposed to be there to receive additional info and directions. Whether this was written, whether this was someone who was supposed to meet him there, we don't know, Kyra.

But they also are still going on the three theories -- that Brian Wells was a total victim, that Brian Wells was involved or connected and may have been duped by other people involved in this or they said that he acted alone. But they said there's nothing to support that scenario so far.

What they don't have, what they had so far they gave us today. There was these detailed instructions to go from one place to another place, into some woods to receive detailed instructions, then after that to drive to another location. They showed seven different picture.

They also showed two composite drawings, one of a white male, one of a black male. And they said the white male was seen running out of the woods near where he was supposed to go for some of the supposed instructions. And he ran across traffic, serpentine through cars, and put his hands on the trunks and hoods of some of the cars as he was trying to dodge these cars.

They're trying to job the memory of people who may have been in the area that day. They said that the timing of all of these incidents are right around the time of the robbery. You know, was it a scenario gone bad? And they also said at the end that the situation may have gotten out of control, people who have been involved in this, it might have gotten bigger than they thought. They want anyone involved in this to come forward. They want people to call their tip line that may have information about this white male.

Now in the same vicinity of Peach Street and Interchange Road, they saw a black male running fast, had to jump over a median. They don't know whether these two, this white male and this black male are connected, but they want anyone that has information that may have seen them in that vicinity to call their tip line. They say they've received 416 calls to the tip line so far and they've run out -- working on so far 200 leads.

PHILLIPS: Now what's bizarre about this route of travel?

BROOKS: You know, it's not that big of an area. He was supposed to come out of the bank -- or the Mcdonald's after he got additional instructions, make a right, go up to Interstate 90, which is -- you can see it right almost from the bank -- get on Interstate 90, go to 79 north heading back towards Erie, go down one exit to exit 180 and get off Interchange Road. It's almost in a circle that they had him going, which is very odd. It's not that far from the bank.

And you know, if you're planning out a robbery, you want to try to get away from the location where the robbery was as fast as possible. But they almost had him going in a circle. And whether they thought this was going to outsmart police, we don't know. It's still -- it's still too early to say, apparently, in the investigation.

But they also say that they believe that he did go to the tower site and receive his additional instructions and where maybe the collar was put on then. They said he did -- they do know that he did go to the tower for some kind of instructions. They don't know what.

PHILLIPS: All right. Just real quickly, listening to all these details -- I mean, the fact that the FBI is involved, we're hearing more from the FBI, does that mean this could be a bigger scenario, a bigger crime than, say, a local guy that maybe just went a little crazy and it was a failed robbery attempt?

BROOKS: It may have been. You know, again, they're going on those three theories. And one of the other things the FBI does, having been -- worked with the FBI on a task force for six years, I know that each FBI office has a bank robbery coordinator -- they call it a BRC -- all the information and forensics from this particular case is sent out to all 56 FBI field offices around the country. And what they do -- they'll go back and look in their cases to see if there's any similarities. You know, they've got the pictures of the collar, the locking device and a pip bomb as well as the walking cane. They'll take a look in their records to see if there's any cases similar to this that they can link with this robbery.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mike Brooks, thanks.

BROOKS: Sure.

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 8, 2003 - 15:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In Erie, Pennsylvania, the probe deepens into the mysterious death of that pizza delivery man. He was killed by an explosive collar after robbing a bank.
The FBI gave new details in this case just a few minutes ago, and CNN's Mike Brooks has been following the case, joins us here on set now.

All of a sudden, now we're seeing pictures and boards like a power Powerpoint presentation versus just an informational conference.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very unusual. They said they were going to put information out today, and they got -- definitely got into the specifics.

They talked about a detailed note that they had, that they found after the robbery and the detailed instructions for Brian Wells, what to do after he committed the robbery.

We just got back from Erie, and when I was there, one of my big questions was why did he sit in the parking lot of the McDonald's? There was a 911 call that came in and it says, there's a -- the guy who just robbed the bank with the bomb around his neck, he's sitting in the parking lot of the McDonald's. And the McDonald's is literally a half block down the street from the bank. But what investigators are telling us now, that in one of the pictures that -- in the third picture they showed, it was the drive-thru McDonald's signs, he was supposed to be there to receive additional info and directions. Whether this was written, whether this was someone who was supposed to meet him there, we don't know, Kyra.

But they also are still going on the three theories -- that Brian Wells was a total victim, that Brian Wells was involved or connected and may have been duped by other people involved in this or they said that he acted alone. But they said there's nothing to support that scenario so far.

What they don't have, what they had so far they gave us today. There was these detailed instructions to go from one place to another place, into some woods to receive detailed instructions, then after that to drive to another location. They showed seven different picture.

They also showed two composite drawings, one of a white male, one of a black male. And they said the white male was seen running out of the woods near where he was supposed to go for some of the supposed instructions. And he ran across traffic, serpentine through cars, and put his hands on the trunks and hoods of some of the cars as he was trying to dodge these cars.

They're trying to job the memory of people who may have been in the area that day. They said that the timing of all of these incidents are right around the time of the robbery. You know, was it a scenario gone bad? And they also said at the end that the situation may have gotten out of control, people who have been involved in this, it might have gotten bigger than they thought. They want anyone involved in this to come forward. They want people to call their tip line that may have information about this white male.

Now in the same vicinity of Peach Street and Interchange Road, they saw a black male running fast, had to jump over a median. They don't know whether these two, this white male and this black male are connected, but they want anyone that has information that may have seen them in that vicinity to call their tip line. They say they've received 416 calls to the tip line so far and they've run out -- working on so far 200 leads.

PHILLIPS: Now what's bizarre about this route of travel?

BROOKS: You know, it's not that big of an area. He was supposed to come out of the bank -- or the Mcdonald's after he got additional instructions, make a right, go up to Interstate 90, which is -- you can see it right almost from the bank -- get on Interstate 90, go to 79 north heading back towards Erie, go down one exit to exit 180 and get off Interchange Road. It's almost in a circle that they had him going, which is very odd. It's not that far from the bank.

And you know, if you're planning out a robbery, you want to try to get away from the location where the robbery was as fast as possible. But they almost had him going in a circle. And whether they thought this was going to outsmart police, we don't know. It's still -- it's still too early to say, apparently, in the investigation.

But they also say that they believe that he did go to the tower site and receive his additional instructions and where maybe the collar was put on then. They said he did -- they do know that he did go to the tower for some kind of instructions. They don't know what.

PHILLIPS: All right. Just real quickly, listening to all these details -- I mean, the fact that the FBI is involved, we're hearing more from the FBI, does that mean this could be a bigger scenario, a bigger crime than, say, a local guy that maybe just went a little crazy and it was a failed robbery attempt?

BROOKS: It may have been. You know, again, they're going on those three theories. And one of the other things the FBI does, having been -- worked with the FBI on a task force for six years, I know that each FBI office has a bank robbery coordinator -- they call it a BRC -- all the information and forensics from this particular case is sent out to all 56 FBI field offices around the country. And what they do -- they'll go back and look in their cases to see if there's any similarities. You know, they've got the pictures of the collar, the locking device and a pip bomb as well as the walking cane. They'll take a look in their records to see if there's any cases similar to this that they can link with this robbery.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mike Brooks, thanks.

BROOKS: Sure.

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