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ASSOCIATED PRESS
ERIE, Pa., Sept. 5 ? Adding a new layer of mystery to an already perplexing puzzle, NBC News has learned that a pizza deliveryman killed by collar bomb was carrying a second customized weapon during the bizarre bank heist that preceded his death ? a single-shot firearm disguised as a walking cane.
THE WEAPON, apparently custom-built, was recovered from Brian Wells? car when he was arrested shortly after the Aug. 28 bank robbery, in which Wells walked into a PNC Bank branch with a bomb clamped onto his neck and handed a teller a note demanding cash.
In an interview on NBC?s ?Today? show, former FBI profiler Cliff Van Zandt said the ?cane gun? was an archaic weapon that enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the late 19th century.
The Erie Times and News reported Friday that Wells carried the cane gun into the bank but never used it to threaten workers. Quoting an unidentified witness to the robbery, the newspaper said that the cane ?had buttons on it.?
The witness also said that Wells patiently waited his turn in line ? despite the live bomb locked onto his neck ? before handing the teller a lengthy note demanding $250,000 in cash, the newspaper said. According to the account, which also relied on a source close to the investigation, Wells told the teller the device around his neck ?is going off in 22 minutes,? before walking out of the bank a bag full of cash, but not the full amount requested.
DEATH STILL A MYSTERY
Investigators still aren?t sure whether Wells, 46, was involved in hatching the outlandish plot or was an innocent victim.
Wells was arrested a block away from the bank, then spent minutes pleading with police officers to remove the bomb tethered over his chest and hanging from a locked, metal collar around his neck. He also told police he had been forced to rob the bank after having the bomb clamped onto him before dying when the bomb exploded as the officers waited for the bomb squad to arrive.
Authorities on Wednesday released photos of the collar and the locking panel, which had four key locks and a combination lock that prevented Wells from removing it, in hopes that the public will recognize them.
Friends of Wells, who lived in a rented cottage with hand-me-down furniture and three cats, are firm in their belief that Wells was a victim. The described the dead man as a quiet man content to deliver pizzas 27 hours a week and spend much of his free time listening to his stereo. Money, they say, never meant much to him.
?A DIFFERENT SET OF VALUES?
?He had a different set of values,? said his landlord, Linda Payne, who rented the white cottage behind her home to the unmarried Wells for five years.
While Wells? family members have refused to speak publicly, others described him as a quiet man of average intelligence, friendly and willing to help with chores from picking up the mail to shoveling snow in winter.
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Investigators haven?t talked about what a search of Wells? home produced, but Payne said she doesn?t believe they found much to support a theory that he was willingly involved in the heist or the making of the bomb.
?He didn?t have a computer. He couldn?t get it off the Internet. He would have no desire to make a bomb. He would have no desire to hang something around his neck,? Payne said.
Investigators seized drill bits, household tools, phone bills and letters from Wells? home when they searched it last Friday, according to court documents. FBI officials have said they are trying to reconstruct the bomb and analyze notes found with Wells to determine whether he was forced to rob the bank by someone who had locked the collar around his neck.
Korac Timon, chief deputy coroner in Erie County, says the blast killed Wells, leaving a postcard-sized hole in his chest.
FBI Agent Kenneth McCabe said through a spokesman Wednesday he has never heard of such a collar-bomb device being used in America but that he was aware of at least one similar case in Colombia.
COLLAR BOMBS IN SOUTH AMERICA
In May 2000, in what was believed to be an extortion attempt, a collar packed with explosives and placed around the neck of a 53-year-old woman exploded, killing her and a bomb technician trying to disarm it. This summer, Colombian rebels were accused of using a so-called ?necklace bomb? to try to extort money from a Venezuelan rancher. Police were able to disarm that bomb, authorities said.
In the fatal bombing in Colombia, press accounts said Elvia Cortes was surprised at her home by four assailants who clamped the bomb device around her neck and said it would blow up unless she paid them 15 million pesos (about $7,500).
The bomb exploded about seven hours later, killing both Cortes and a police bomb technician, Jairo Hernando Lopez.
A suspect, Jose Miguel Suarez, was arrested in the case, but apparently has not stood trial. Authorities variously suggested his motive was political ? Cortes was described in some press accounts as a leader of a ?rural association? ? or a feud between neighbors.
Authorities investigating the case in Erie have said they do not believe Wells? death was an act of terrorism, and, on Wednesday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, a native of Erie and a former assistant prosecutor in the county, said his agency is not investigating.
?I?m confident that they will get to the bottom of this, but it?s a very strange occurrence. It?s very bizarre,? said Ridge.