Sacked After Grabbing Suspect : Fired Bank Guard Has Generated Some Interest

Security guard Jesse Massey, fired this week from his job as a Wells Fargo Bank guard after he chased down a suspected bank robber, has received dozens of job offers from people who heard his story.

“The public has been great,” Massey, 24, a former member of President Reagan’s honor guard while serving in the Coast Guard, said. “A lot of people have stopped me and told me what a good thing I’ve done.”

The job offers, he said, range from working as a security guard to building custom kitchen fixtures.

Murray was fired on Wednesday because, according to a statement from Wells Fargo officials, he “failed to follow procedures designed to protect our customers and employees” when he pursued the robbery suspect.

The guard said he recognized the suspect, who was wearing dark glasses and concealing one hand in a pocket, in a teller’s line last Friday. He confronted him, and the suspect fled out the door. Massey chased him several blocks and caught him.

“Nobody ever told me not to chase a bank robber,” Massey said.

Police said the “heavy hitter” that Massey caught after a foot chase is suspected of robbing four banks in San Francisco’s Financial District in the last three months. The suspect was identified as Robert Cunningham, 35, who one officer said “would still be robbing banks if it hadn’t been for Massey.”

A bank spokesman said Wells Fargo was not out to “get” Massey and had merely requested that the security firm he directly worked for reassign him to another job.

“We never thought he was going to be out of work,” Dave Murray said. “We are reviewing the situation. We are looking for ways that we can help him.”