Delivery Man Was Locked Into Bomb Collar
E R I E, Pa., Sept. 2 -- The bomb that killed a pizza delivery man after a bank robbery was locked around his neck by a homemade metal collar that an FBI agent described as "unique" and "sophisticated."
Brian Wells, 46, was killed Thursday after authorities said he robbed a bank, warning the tellers he was a human bomb. He died when the bomb exploded after he had been arrested a short distance from the PNC Bank in Erie.
He had told police that someone had started a timer on the bomb and it was set to go off, but police said they were unable to safely defuse the bomb or remove the collar locking it to his body before it went off.
FBI agent Bob Rudge said at a news conference today that the locking device consisted of four key locks and a combination lock, and appeared to be homemade.
"It is not likely that it was commercially manufactured and not likely it had any legitimate purpose," Rudge said. "Its most likely purpose was attaching the device to the neck of the individual who went into the PNC bank. … The locking mechanism was unique and it was sophisticated."
Investigators at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., who reconstructed the device had not yet determined whether Wells could have locked it into place himself, or whether someone would have had to put it on him, Rudge said.
Photographs of the collar were to be posted on the FBI Web site later today, in the hopes that someone might be able to provide a lead on who made it, Rudge said.
Teams of investigators from a multi-agency task force that includes the FBI, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Erie police, the U.S. Attorney's office and the Erie County District Attorney's office are trying to determine whether Wells was working on his own, was a willing participant in the robbery or was a "bomb hostage," state police Corp. Mark Zaleski said.
Two notes were recovered from the scene, one for bank employees and one for Wells, but authorities refused to discuss the contents of the notes.
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