Police Kill Bank Robbery Suspect in Costa Mesa

Police shot and killed a bank robbery suspect Wednesday after a chase through a nearby fitness center that sent patrons scattering and ended in a parking lot shootout.

Sharp-eyed employees of the Bank of Yorba Linda, who said they recognized the man from a robbery in April, called police and then chased the suspect themselves to the fitness center. The man, who has not been identified, died in a hail of about 20 shots after an armed confrontation with more than a dozen Costa Mesa officers.

Police would not say exactly how many shots were fired, or whether the handgun found next to the dead man was loaded. The shooting is being investigated by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Tellers at the Bank of Yorba Linda, in the 1700 block of Adams Avenue, said they first saw the heavyset man early Wednesday afternoon in their parking lot and thought he resembled the man who had robbed them at gunpoint on April 20. Although he had a beard, which the robber didn’t, and he didn’t have a ponytail like the robber’s, he seemed to be the same man, they said.

At 3 p.m. they again saw him outside the building, and this time they were sure, employees said.

After calling police, several bank employees--one in a car, the others on foot--followed the man down Adams Avenue.

“We followed him to make sure he was the one. We didn’t want to lose him,” said Sherry Greer, the bank’s assistant manager and the person who had dealt directly with the April robber.

“We didn’t want to get hit again,” Greer said. “He may have thought we were an easy target. That’s why we were so desperate to make sure he was caught. We wanted to put it to rest.”

One of the tellers, a 26-year-old Costa Mesa resident who asked not to be identified, said she never thought twice about following a man who might have been armed.

“He was just scoping out our bank,” she said. “He’s the guy who robbed us. I just wanted him caught. I’ve personally had nightmares about him for months.”

Jerry Wilk, a part-time bank employee who handles investments, drove slowly behind as the man walked down Adams and crossed East Mesa Verde Drive.

“I think he knew he was being followed,” Wilk said.

The man, weighing an estimated 300 pounds and wearing a long trench coat in the hot sunshine, walked past three buildings until he reached the parking lot between the Girl Scouts of America offices and the Family Fitness Health Center, where he found police officers waiting in cruisers and a police helicopter overhead.

As he headed toward the fitness center, “one officer pulled his gun and crouched behind a car and ordered him to stop,” Wilk said. “He just walked up the steps and ignored them.”

Bryan Luxembourger, 19, of Costa Mesa had just left the center when he saw the man walking up the steps. Because of the man’s girth, Luxembourger said he remembered thinking “he didn’t look like he was going to work out.”

“He had a bunch of clothes on,” Luxembourger said. “He was smiling when he was coming up the stairs. He was just smiling, and he had all this sweat coming down. I couldn’t believe it.”

Right behind the man, Luxembourger said, were at least three Costa Mesa police officers with their weapons drawn, ordering the man to freeze.

“I could see the barrels pointed right at us,” he said.

As Luxembourger ducked, he saw the suspect reach with his right hand for a metal object that “looked like a pistol.”

Traci Travis, 31, of Costa Mesa was leaving the fitness center right behind Luxembourger after a workout when she saw a line of police officers approaching, guns drawn, and heard someone screaming at her to drop to the ground.

“I was in kind of the line of fire. It was real scary,” said Travis, still sweating in leotard and tights, as she walked through the parking lot about half an hour after the shooting. “I’ve never had a gun pointed at me. Now I know what it feels like. Now I know what five guns feels like. It stops your heart, that’s for sure.”

The suspect ignored police and entered the fitness center, Luxembourger said, but officers did not follow through that door. The group of about 10 officers split up, some running around the outside of the building, while others entered an emergency door, setting off an alarm.

Patrons inside the fitness center said the man burst into the health club with police close behind, then ran through and out an emergency exit at the rear of the building.

“He came in the door and some lady said, ‘That guy’s got a gun, the police are looking for him!’ Everyone at the counter was diving over the counter, so I dove over too,” said Jay McLean, 36, who recently moved to Costa Mesa from Anaheim--because someone had shot at him.

“He was really out of breath. He must have been running because he was sweating,” McLean said, describing the man as fat, wearing a suit and suspenders. “He was concentrating on what he was doing because he walked right by. Some girl was going to ask for his membership card.”

Within three minutes, Luxembourger said, he heard a single shot from the rear of the building, followed by 15 to 20 more shots. Huddled on the landing in front of the health club with Luxembourger and others, Travis said, she heard more than a dozen shots fired.

Wilk, from the bank, said, “All hell broke loose. It sounded to me like 20 rounds.”

Police investigator George P. Wilson said that in the back parking lot, “a confrontation occurred between the subject and he was shot. Paramedics responded and pronounced the subject dead. A handgun was found next to the body.”

FBI Special Agent David Struck in Santa Ana said agents of the bureau “do not have any indication at this time that the individual is involved in any other robberies,” apart from the one in April.

In that one, bank employees said, a large man came into Greer’s office and demanded an immediate loan. He offered a long story, including something about needing an operation at Hoag Hospital, and eventually showed Greer a gun.