Dad Called Hero After Hostage Ordeal

Dec. 28, 2008— -- A Clinton, Md., man is being called a hero after police said he helped free his family from two men who allegedly took them hostage as part of an elaborate plan to rob a bank.

James Spruell told ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV in Arlington, Va., about the terrifying night he and his family spent Friday, when the two men allegedly held them prisoner in their own home.

"My wife comes home, they put a gun to her head, and he tied us up for 12 hours," Spruell told WJLA. "They followed my wife from work and they wanted her to facilitate a robbery from her job."

He said the two men were armed with a gun and knife, and they threatened to kill him, his wife and their 8- and 10-year-old sons.

"They held this family hostage overnight; they actually used electrical cords within the home to tie up the father and mother," Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said.

Police said it was all part of a plot to rob the SunTrust Bank in Silver Spring, where Spruell's wife works as branch manager, before it opened Saturday morning.

"They apparently were going to use her to facilitate a robbery of the bank prior to it opening at 9 this morning," Shipley said.

According to police, the would-be robbers planned for one of them to go to the bank with Spruell's wife. Spruell said he didn't want his family separated, though, so he made up a story to force them to change their plans.

"I made up a story and said my aunt was coming over at the same time that he wanted my wife to take off to her branch," Spruell said.

So the two men put the whole family in the car and one of the pair went with them, police said, but Spruell had another idea to get his family free.

He began driving erratically, and when a Maryland state trooper pulled them over and came to the window, he said he jumped into action.

"I hopped from the front to the back ... and I held him down and said, 'He got a gun, he got a gun, he got a gun,'" Spruell told WJLA.

Maryland State Trooper Barrington Cameron, who stopped the car on the outer loop of the beltway near Route 1, had seen someone in the back seat making furtive movements, police said. When Spruell told him the man had a gun, Cameron drew his weapon and arrested the suspect, police said.

When the Spruells told their story, police went to their home, believing the second suspect was there, and set up barricades around it.

"There were guys with guns and rifles all around the backyard and on the side of the house," neighbor Ezzra Farrell told WJLA.

"And they asked us to stay low, go in the basement, don't get up," another neighbor, Sherrone Martin, said.

But when they finally entered the house, police found the other suspect had already fled.

The man arrested in the car with the Spruells was Yohannes T. Surafel, 24, of Washington, D.C. He is charged with multiple counts of first and second degree assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and was being held at a Prince George's County jail.

Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring was arrested early today after meeting with investigators, police said. Tadele allegedly drove Surafel and another suspect, who has yet to be identified, to the Spruells' home and dropped them off there Friday night.

Police said they believe Tadele picked up the third suspect Saturday morning at the Spruells' home, before detectives got there.

The third suspect is described as a black man in his twenties, approximately 5'7", 160 pounds. Police said he was last seen wearing dark pants and a black hooded sweatshirt.

As for James Spruell, he said he would take any risk to keep his family safe.

"I'd die for my family," Spruell told WJLA.