Suspect in Guard Killing Near Death

The man suspected of fatally gunning down a security guard during a bank robbery remained unconscious and in critical condition, and police said Thursday he is not expected to live.

Investigators still were unable to identify the man, whom police believe robbed the same branch of Eldorado Bank three times before.

Orange police couldn’t match the man’s fingerprints with any on file in several western states, and sent them to FBI headquarters in Washington to be analyzed. Results could take two to three weeks, Police Lt. Ed Tunstall said.

The man is suspected of killing security guard Michael McClellan, a retired Long Beach police officer, when McClellan confronted him during Wednesday’s robbery.

Police are seeking charges on four counts of bank robbery and one count of murder against him, using the name John Doe until he is identified. The suspect also is wanted in two other robberies, a 1995 heist in Huntington Beach and a 1996 holdup in Garden Grove, FBI officials said.

The suspected robber was nicknamed the “Bogart Bandit” because he resembled the actor in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” in which Humphrey Bogart wore a fake beard, said FBI spokesman Gary Morley.

The latest robbery attempt occurred Wednesday morning, when the gunman stormed into the Eldorado Bank branch on Chapman Avenue and held nearly a dozen employees and customers at gunpoint while demanding $50 and $100 bills, police and witnesses said.

During the holdup, McClellan approached the gunman and the men exchanged six to eight shots, investigators said.

The bullet hit “dead center” in the gunman’s chest and traveled south, destroying his liver, Tunstall said. He underwent surgery at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

McClellan was shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the forehead. Investigators did not know who shot first.

Raymond E. Dellerba, president of Eldorado Bank, said Thursday the Chapman Avenue branch had been robbed four times in the 16 months before Wednesday’s holdup, including one heist by a different man.

“In my 26 years of banking in two states, I’ve never seen anything like this, anyone robbing the same bank four times,” Dellerba said. “It was beyond our expectations, and the police’s.”

The Chapman Avenue branch was closed Thursday and will remain shut down until Monday, officials said. Bank employees on Thursday joined several others in placing flowers and cards at the front door.

“We’re very saddened by this,” Dellerba said. “This fellow was a real hero.”

McClellan, 54, served in the Long Beach Police Department for 15 years before taking a medical retirement in 1980. Afterward, he spent his time running a series of small businesses that included a motorcycle repair shop, a security firm and a company that reclaimed gold from electronic circuit boards and other industrial applications.

He also spent several years in west Africa on a gold and diamond mining expedition. In an ironic twist, McClellan told a close friend he was planning to quit his job at the bank this week to go mine for gold in Baker, Nev.

“It’s unbelievable,” said McClellan’s 27-year-old daughter, Deby McClellan, of Rancho Penasquitos.

“I thought that if he could survive the police, being a security guard would be a piece of cake,” Deby McClellan said. “I still can’t believe it. This was the last thing I had expected.”

McClellan will be buried Saturday in a private funeral service in Long Beach.