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29 March 2024

Horror end to Louisiana bank hostage crisis: Gunman shoots 2 women

Emergency personnel stand outside the Louisiana State Police Mobile Command Center on the scene of a hostage situation at Tensas State Bank in St Joseph, La Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. A man whose family owns a store across the street from the bank took three bank employees hostage, and a state police negotiator has been talking to him for hours, police said. (AP)

Published
By Agencies

Latest update: A man who took hostages at a bank in rural Louisiana shot the two remaining hostages, killing one of them, before being shot and killed by police, authorities said.

During negotiations with law enforcement late Tuesday, the suspect — identified as Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, who was believed to be in his 20s — said he was going to kill the hostages, Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said. State police then entered the building just before midnight Tuesday.

That's when Ahmed shot the two hostages and then state police shot and killed him, Edmonson said. He did not have any other information on the condition of the second hostage who was shot.

The hostages were both shot with a handgun, but Edmonson said Ahmed was also armed with a rifle.
The gunman initially took two women and a man captive about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Tensas State Bank branch in St. Joseph. He later released one of the female hostages.

Edmonson said Ahmed was a paranoid schizophrenic and that the situation was not a bank robbery attempt but a planned attack.
"He was mad at people that he said were mean to him," Edmonson said. "He had voices in his head."
Edmonson said there was no indication Ahmed had any history with the bank employees.

"These were good, God-fearing people," he said of the hostages.
The suspect also had a duffel bag that contained items he was going to torture the hostages with, Edmonson said.
"His intent was to inflict pain and kill these individuals," he said.

Earlier report:

A gunman who took two women and a man hostage at a small town Louisiana bank on Tuesday, but released one of the women unharmed after hours of negotiation with police, authorities said.

Police hoping to win the release of the remaining two hostages were negotiating with the gunman at Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph in northeastern Louisiana, and were questioning the freed woman. There were no reports of shots fired nor any other violence inside the bank by late Tuesday.

Jane Netterville, spokeswoman for Tensas Parish office of Homeland Security, said the gunman was believed to be an employee of a local convenience store, but she did not name him.

Louisiana State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson announced the release of the hostage late on Tuesday in a briefing for reporters. A video of the briefing was posted on the website of the Monroe, Louisiana, News Star newspaper.

A police negotiator has been able to calm the gunman, and the hostages have not been harmed, Edmonson said.

"I don't have any idea about motive," he said. He added that the hostages were seized about noon.

Members of the gunman's family have been on the scene, helping authorities try to resolve the situation, according to state police spokesman Albert Paxton. He said one family member trying get to the scene to help out drove through a police barricade during the standoff.

"It's a tense situation," he added.

The mayor of St. Joseph, a tight-knit rural community of about 1,200 residents and minimal crime, said residents were in shock, adding that some had left town because of false rumors of bombs threats.

"We are just waiting, hoping it will be resolved soon, real soon," Mayor Edward Brown told Reuters. "This has blown me away."