In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Unorganized militiamen help capture armed robber
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Citizens pursue robber
By Ed Brock June 15, 2002
Some sharp detective work by three citizens in a van led to the arrest of a suspected bank robber.
Muhammad Abdel Rahim, 48, of Forest Park was arrested by Morrow police and turned over to the FBI in connection with the robbery of the Bank of America on Mt. Zion Road just after 10 a.m. Friday, Morrow Police Chief Kenny Smith said.
"He thought he had everything figured out great," said one of the three witnesses who helped police catch Rahim. "He had great plans that really went amuck."
The witness asked that her name not be used.
Rahim is believed to be the man who entered the bank wearing a hardhat and an orange vest, Smith said.
"He just looked like your average construction worker," Smith said. "He just walked in and stood in line like everybody else."
The robber "brandished a handgun and demanded money," Smith said, and at that point the customer in line behind the man noticed what was going on. He followed the robber outside, where three of the man's co-workers were waiting for him in a van, Smith said.
"We were sitting (in the van) on the side of the bank and all of a sudden we see this guy we work with come running out the door," the witness said.
The co-worker told the trio in the van, a man and two women, what had happened, the witness said, so they followed the robber's red Ford Ranger to the nearby Southlake Mall parking lot.
"We just pulled in there like we were coming to shop," the witness said.
The three saw Rahim remove his outer layer of clothing, including the vest and hard hat, and throw them in the back of another truck. He then switched license plates with that vehicle and left the parking lot, heading for Jonesboro Road with the witnesses in pursuit and in contact with police by cell phone.
"All of a sudden three police cars came around him and got him right there," the witness said.
Smith said FBI agents took Rahim into custody on the scene. Rahim will probably be charged with armed bank robbery and possibly a weapons charge, FBI Special Agent Jeff Holmes said.
Holmes said the FBI is investigating other bank robberies around the country that might be similar to this one.
Rahim will make an initial appearance in federal court on Monday, Holmes said.
The Bank of America provided trauma counselors for the employees at the bank, bank spokeswoman Mary Welch said.
"It's traumatic for everyone ... so we, as a matter of course, have counselors come in," Welch said.
Welch said that, to her knowledge, the Morrow branch has not been robbed before.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4454316&BRD=1099&PAG=461&dept_id=99012&rfi=6
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Ed Brock June 15, 2002
Some sharp detective work by three citizens in a van led to the arrest of a suspected bank robber.
Muhammad Abdel Rahim, 48, of Forest Park was arrested by Morrow police and turned over to the FBI in connection with the robbery of the Bank of America on Mt. Zion Road just after 10 a.m. Friday, Morrow Police Chief Kenny Smith said.
"He thought he had everything figured out great," said one of the three witnesses who helped police catch Rahim. "He had great plans that really went amuck."
The witness asked that her name not be used.
Rahim is believed to be the man who entered the bank wearing a hardhat and an orange vest, Smith said.
"He just looked like your average construction worker," Smith said. "He just walked in and stood in line like everybody else."
The robber "brandished a handgun and demanded money," Smith said, and at that point the customer in line behind the man noticed what was going on. He followed the robber outside, where three of the man's co-workers were waiting for him in a van, Smith said.
"We were sitting (in the van) on the side of the bank and all of a sudden we see this guy we work with come running out the door," the witness said.
The co-worker told the trio in the van, a man and two women, what had happened, the witness said, so they followed the robber's red Ford Ranger to the nearby Southlake Mall parking lot.
"We just pulled in there like we were coming to shop," the witness said.
The three saw Rahim remove his outer layer of clothing, including the vest and hard hat, and throw them in the back of another truck. He then switched license plates with that vehicle and left the parking lot, heading for Jonesboro Road with the witnesses in pursuit and in contact with police by cell phone.
"All of a sudden three police cars came around him and got him right there," the witness said.
Smith said FBI agents took Rahim into custody on the scene. Rahim will probably be charged with armed bank robbery and possibly a weapons charge, FBI Special Agent Jeff Holmes said.
Holmes said the FBI is investigating other bank robberies around the country that might be similar to this one.
Rahim will make an initial appearance in federal court on Monday, Holmes said.
The Bank of America provided trauma counselors for the employees at the bank, bank spokeswoman Mary Welch said.
"It's traumatic for everyone ... so we, as a matter of course, have counselors come in," Welch said.
Welch said that, to her knowledge, the Morrow branch has not been robbed before.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4454316&BRD=1099&PAG=461&dept_id=99012&rfi=6
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
[A dog came by and gave me this profile]