Robbers Kill Thousand Oaks Bank Teller

In what police described as an unprovoked, coldblooded murder, a bank teller was shot in the back of the head execution-style Monday morning during a robbery.

No customers were present during the 10 a.m. takeover-type holdup at the Western Financial Bank branch on Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Inside were four employees, two of whom were left handcuffed by the two masked robbers, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said.

“We believe the suspects already had all the money” when the teller was killed, Chief Deputy Robert Brooks said. “The employees were offering no resistance, and there was absolutely no reason to do that. It was a brutal, vicious killing.”

The slain teller, Monica Lynne Leech, a 39-year-old mother of two from Camarillo, was the first person killed or wounded in a Ventura County bank robbery in the last two decades, according to the FBI’s Ventura office. She was pronounced dead at the bank at 10:31 a.m., authorities said.

It was the first murder this year in Thousand Oaks, a city perennially ranked as one of the safest in the nation with a population of more than 100,000. It was the 14th bank robbery in Ventura County so far this year, and the 260th in the FBI’s Southern California region, authorities said. Eighty-one of those have been takeover-style robberies, including the one that led to the recent North Hollywood shootout, and authorities fear a trend toward more violent holdups.

The robbers, described as a white man and a black man, both in their mid-20s, ran to a white sport utility vehicle--possibly a Ford Explorer or a Jeep--in a residential neighborhood about a block south of the bank, authorities said.

They then crashed into another car on Hampshire Road near the Ventura Freeway onramp, denting their car’s front fender, and continued onto the freeway, according to sheriff’s reports. A witness to the crash pursued the vehicle, but lost track of the robbers on the Moorpark Freeway near Avenida de los Arboles, deputies said. She gave a partial description of the license plate as beginning with “3T.” The county’s crime lab was running that description in hopes of finding a match, officials said.

A police search in Ventura and Los Angeles counties failed to locate the fleeing car.

Immediately after the robbery, workers and patients at a chiropractic office next door to the bank learned of the shooting and rushed to help Leech, giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But she had already died.

Patient Frank Lussier of Thousand Oaks, who had a handcuff key with him, was able to release a bound employee.

“Someone ran in and said, ‘Someone’s been shot at the bank,’ ” said Lussier, 55. “We went over to the bank to see what was going on. . . . There was a lady on the floor, and a lot of blood.”

Workers at the Camarillo Car Care Center, where Leech’s husband, Floyd, works, said he learned about the robbery from a radio news report. Jim Piraino, owner of the car center, said that Leech was a “wonderful lady, mom and hard worker,” and that his employees are extremely distraught over the family’s tragedy.

“My stomach’s been sick all day,” Piraino said. “I can’t believe something like this can happen to two such beautiful people.”

“He’d tried to call and didn’t get through,” Piraino said of Floyd Leech. “We both looked at each other and had a sinking feeling.”

Donald H. Kasle, president of Irvine-based Western Financial Bank, said Monday’s shooting was the first casualty during a robbery in the small community bank’s 24-year history.

Kasle said he recently visited the Thousand Oaks branch, which had been destroyed by fire more than a year ago, when it reopened at another location in the same strip mall. He remembered the workers as a close-knit family, and said the bank will provide professional counseling to the three other employees, two women and one man.

Leech, the mother of a 13-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, had worked at the bank for less than a year, he said.

“What a tragedy it is,” Kasle said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the staffer.”

Brooks, the highest-ranking sheriff’s official in eastern Ventura County, said he could not recall a more brutal murder in recent Thousand Oaks history. He said the callous nature of the crime warranted the death penalty.

“It just wasn’t necessary,” Brooks said. “I don’t understand why they did that.”

Police said the men entered the bank wearing dark nylon stockings over their faces shortly after 10 a.m. Ordering the four employees to the floor, the robbers handcuffed Leech and another of the employees, then jumped over the bank counter and emptied the cash from the teller boxes.

One of the suspects was described as a black man about 5 feet, 11 inches and 170 pounds, with a mustache. The other was described as a white man, also about 5 feet 11, with brown or blond hair. Both wore three-quarter-length yellow cloth jackets and jeans.

The robbers told two employees to take them to the safe in the back of the bank to get the money out of the safe. After taking all the money, the robbers ordered the two employees back to the main room. It was then that the white robber shot Leech in the back of the head as she knelt, authorities said.

Diane Hook, who works at nearby Prudential California Realty, said the robbery has made her realize even Thousand Oaks is not immune from crime.

“It just makes you think,” Hook said. “It could be you or your kids. I’ve lived here for 22 years, and we all feel safe and secure here, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

“Thousand Oaks is a safe place, but the times have changed.”

Bustillo and Hadly are Times staff writers and Steepleton is a correspondent. Staff writer Kate Folmar and correspondents Penny Arevalo, Dawn Hobbs and Jason Terada also contributed to this story.