Photo by Todd Yates Caller-Times
A vehicle used in a bank robbery at the Alice Wells Fargo Bank
sits abandoned on a dirt road near the Alice International Airport
on Thursday, April 10.
Posted on 04/10/2008 11:09:52 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
ALICE- has learned that an Alice police officer was shot in the leg Thursday morning during a chase for a suspected bank robber. The robbery happened at the Wells Fargo Bank around 10:30 a.m.
Alice police have confirmed that one suspect is dead, another is in custody, and officers are now searching for another suspect near FM 665.
Preliminary reports have the bank robber as a Hispanic male with a long goatee. He was last seen wearing a camouflage jacket, blue jeans and a navy baseball cap and is said to be armed and dangerous.
Online Reporter: Roxanne Carrillo
Alice Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Went to Alice, TX back in 1959. Was pretty neat. Our friends had family there and they took us with them.
Headed for King Ranch? This movie will write itself. No Country for Old Hombres?
Prayers for the officer. I’m at work and can’t ping the list right now, but will try to do that this evening.
Update: Not sure about 3rd suspect now.
Officer shot, one suspect killed following Alice bank robbery
Police had second suspect in custody, not sure if there is a third suspect
By Mike Baird (Contact), Israel Saenz (Contact)
Originally published 11:10 a.m., April 10, 2008
Updated 02:03 p.m., April 10, 2008
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/apr/10/alice-officer-shot-following-bank-robbery/
ALICE — An Alice police officer was shot while chasing a vehicle with suspected bank robbers Thursday, which also resulted in the death of one of the suspects, police said.
The police officer, Daniel Elizondo, was shot in the leg and expected to recover from his injuries, Alice police chief Daniel Bueno said.
Two other officers were injured in the car chase that occurred after the robbery of the Wells Fargo Bank at 1910 Main St. before 11 a.m.
One suspect was killed outside of Alice in fields along county road 341 about four miles outside of Alice, according to Bueno. The other suspect is in custody.
Both suspects are from San Diego, police said.
Police don’t believe that there is anyone else involved but law enforcement agencies, including the Corpus Christi SWAT unit, continue to search the area near Farm-to-Market Road 665.
Lockdowns at Alice Independent School District’s 10 campuses and Christus Spohn Hospital-Alice were lifted at 1 p.m.
Photo by Todd Yates Caller-Times
A vehicle used in a bank robbery at the Alice Wells Fargo Bank
sits abandoned on a dirt road near the Alice International Airport
on Thursday, April 10.
Please know that I am praying. May God provide healing and comfort as needed.
Blessings,
trussell
If you want on/off my prayer ping list, please let me know. All requests happily honored.
Prayers for the officer.
I join in prayer for this hero - may God bless him with a full and speedy recovery!
Update:
Man dead, other held in bank robbery
By Mike Baird (Contact), Israel Saenz (Contact)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Alice bank robbery
» View Photo Gallery
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/apr/11/alice-officer-shot/
ALICE — ALICE — It began with a rifle shot into a bank ceiling and a banker giving up his vehicle and $10,000 to avoid bloodshed.
It ended along a dirt road, where a suspect’s bullet-riddled body was carried away.
In addition to the death of a San Diego man, Thursday’s bank robbery in Alice also resulted in injuries to three Alice police officers as about 100 law enforcement officers descended on the town’s outskirts.
Police said Juan Villarreal, 22, and a 20-year-old man walked into a Wells Fargo bank at about 10:30 a.m. Villarreal announced their arrival by discharging a rifle and demanding money and then a car.
“The suspect said to provide him with a vehicle or he would kill somebody,” Alice Police Chief Daniel Bueno said. “That’s when the banker walked up and said, ‘Here, take mine.’ “
The suspects, both of San Diego, split up and fled in a pickup and the banker’s Cadillac. Alice police, however, had been alerted and caught up with them.
The chase ended minutes later when Villarreal crashed the stolen Cadillac into an Alice police cruiser on a dusty stretch of County Road 341 outside of Alice, and officer Daniel Elizondo got out of his vehicle.
Villarreal drew faster than Elizondo, and shot the officer in the leg. Elizondo still managed to fire several shots and hit Villarreal in the chest, police said.
“The suspect collapsed about 40 feet from the Cadillac,” Bueno said. “He died while the second man ran into a brushy area toward a creek bed.”
The second man then surrendered, Bueno said. He was arrested on suspicion of aggravated robbery and was being held at Jim Wells County Jail.
Bueno said Elizondo, one of Alice’s 36 police officers and a firearms instructor with the department, was in stable condition and would recover from his injuries. Two other Alice officers, Tony Aguilar and J.R. Resendez, received minor injuries in the wreck with Villarreal. The $10,000 was recovered.
About 100 officers from 13 area agencies, including a Corpus Christi SWAT unit and a Department of Public Safety helicopter, responded to the scene. Officers with automatic weapons lined the roadside for hours afterward stationed along a string of mesquite trees, peering into brush.
Authorities searched for a possible third suspect until about 3:30 p.m., but Bueno said authorities concluded the incident only involved two men.
The robbery and shootout left other city officials taking precautions — with Alice Independent School District’s 10 campuses on lockdown by lunchtime, and administrators at Coastal Bend College and Christus Spohn Hospital Alice put on alert.
Alice High School, with 1,421 students, is less than a mile away from the bank, district staff said Thursday. The district lockdown was lifted around 1:30 p.m.
“This is crazy that this would happen in Alice,” resident Ovidio Sembrano said, after eating lunch at a restaurant next to the bank. “I’ve been here 39 years and never thought something like this would happen.”
Alice City Manager Albert Uresti was at the scene of the shootout Thursday afternoon with authorities.
“This is the perfect example of different agencies working together,” he said. “This is an unfortunate incident, but it shows the citizens that we can respond to dangerous incidents, and we work efficiently with other agencies.”
Corpus Christi Police Chief Bryan Smith assigned a peer support officer, Sgt. Denise Pace, to stay with Elizondo and his family.
“He did what he had to do,” Bueno said of Elizondo.
Jim Wells County law enforcement officers shot since 1993
February 18, 1997
Sheriffs deputy Dover Choate is shot in the arm with his own gun by a 14-year-old girl. Choate was transporting the girl and two 16-year-old boys to a detention facility in Cotulla when they attempted to escape. The girl shot Choate during the struggle, but the three were re-captured less than two hours later.
September 11, 2000
Sheriffs deputies Rey Aguilar and Paul Pomeroy receive superficial head wounds from a shotgun blast during a standoff with a mentally ill man. DPS trooper Joseph R. Ramos also receives superficial wounds from the pellets.
January 6, 2001
Sheriffs deputy Rey Aguilar and Jim Wells County Precinct 3 constable Jim Long are shot during an eight-hour standoff with a mentally ill man. Aguilar receives wounds in his hand, and Long is shot in the upper chest near his arm. Both men were wearing tactical vests.
May 25, 2007
Sheriffs deputy Mark Martinez is shot in the groin when he and a fellow deputy attempt to pull over a vehicle during a traffic stop. The suspect exited the vehicle and fired on the officers as he fled.
Source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times archives
Contact Israel Saenz at 886- 3767 or saenzi@caller.com; contact Mike Baird at 886-3774 or bairdm@caller.com
Glad the officer is OK.
How does the newswriter know the “suspects” are from San Diego?
Prayers for this officer, have a soft spot for cops having cops in my family.
San Diego, Duval County, Texas is just west of Alice on Hwy 44.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.