$10,000 Reward Offered in Bank Robbery Killing

Union Bank officials and a banking industry group offered a $10,000 reward Tuesday for information leading to the indictment of a man who killed a postal carrier during a Lakewood bank robbery.

Off-duty postal carrier Richard Rice, 47, struggled with a man robbing Union Bank at 5910 South St. on Feb. 15, Sheriff’s Deputy Britta Rodela said. The same man is also suspected of twice robbing Sanwa Bank in Bellflower on Feb. 1 and last June, Rodela said. The reward was offered by the California Bankers Assn. and Union Bank.

The robber waited in line to rob a teller of an undisclosed amount of money and then he robbed a customer on his way out. Rice, a former U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, struggled with the robber and was shot. He died within an hour at Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach.