Friday, April 7, 2006

Phoenix, Arizona

From April 7, 2006 KTVK channel 3:
A man drove his friend to a bank Friday morning but ended up being an unwilling accomplice in a robbery.

It happened at Compass Bank near 35th Avenue and Thomas Road where a man using an ATM was confronted by a man with a gun.

It turns out the suspect got more than he bargained for. He's in a Valley hospital after the customer he robbed grabbed his own gun and shot the man.

Pat Claussen, a witness, says she was in line to use the ATM when the armed robber made his move.

"He grabbed the kid around the waist and put his hand in his back pocket then grabbed his billfold," Claussen said.

But the suspect didn't get far. That's because the customer reached into his own truck, grabbed a gun and started firing.

The suspect took a bullet in the leg then hopped into this getaway car.

But during the commotion, the panicked driver ended up smashing into an electrical box.

"I was sitting over there and all of a sudden bam, bam, bam," said Scott Young, who witnessed the shooting.

Young, a construction worker, watched in disbelief as the wounded suspect attempted to flee on foot.

"I heard at least eight shots," he said.

A short while later, police nabbed the suspect and he was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Officers questioned his accomplice in the back of a police car but eventually released him.

"I'm pissed off," said the suspected accomplice, Frank Canez.

Canez owns the car, now riddled with bullet holes, that the suspect attempted to get away in.

Canez says he knew nothing about the suspect's plan to rob someone at the ATM. He says the suspect is an acquaintance who promised him gas money for driving him to the bank.

"Next thing I know, he comes running to the car like this, like he had a gun, and tells me to go and they just start shooting each other," he said.

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