ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A man with a bomb strapped to his chest robbed a northwestern Pennsylvania bank and died when the bomb apparently went off during a standoff with police, authorities said.
The man, who has not been identified, went into a PNC Bank in Erie, about 110 miles north of Pittsburgh, handed a teller a note saying he had a bomb strapped to chest and pulled up his shirt to prove it, said Mark Dombrowski, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based bank.
As the man left the bank with the money, customers wrote down his license plate number and called authorities with their cell phones, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said.
The man was pulled over about a half mile from the bank by state police troopers, who happened to be nearby, authorities said.
The troopers handcuffed the man but quickly backed off after the man reportedly told them he had a bomb.
State police blocked off the area and there was a short standoff before the bomb exploded, killing the man Thursday afternoon, Crowley said. Authorities initially said the man apparently set the bomb off himself.
"You could hear it like a big old firecracker," said Matt Snippert, who was at a nearby restaurant. "There was a cloud of smoke and debris — the cops ran over and then they ran back."
Man killed by bomb after bank robbery
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