Bank Robber Opens Fire. . . on His Own Partner

Two armed men robbed a bank here Wednesday and escaped, but not before one of the robbers apparently shot and wounded his partner, police said.

As the men were robbing a Bank of America branch on Edinger Avenue about 10 a.m., one of them fired a round.

“You shot me!” the other robber said.

The two had ordered about 20 people on the floor as one of the robbers jumped over the counter and pilfered cash registers.

The robbers dropped some cash in the bank as they fled, and more was found behind the bank outside, Police Lt. Dan Johnson said.

Seal Beach police officers picked up what they believed to be a signal from an electronic tracking device planted with the stolen money and began following a vehicle.

Later, patrol units from other jurisdictions joined the pursuit, along with air units from Los Angeles County. The targeted car drove north on the San Diego Freeway into Long Beach and then north along the Harbor Freeway to the intersection with the Century Freeway.

But the car they were tracking did not contain the suspects, and the occupants were released by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

Police don’t know if one of the robbers is somewhere nursing a bullet wound. No blood was found at the scene.

Witnesses told police that the men were armed with handguns and dressed in dark, hooded sweat shirts and baseball caps.

Bank officials had not determined the amount of the loss, Johnson said.