LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - A customer at a northern New Mexico bank shot at a departing robbery suspect outside the bank but apparently didn’t hit anyone, the FBI said Friday.
The suspect remained at large as the FBI continued its investigation of the robbery shortly before noon Tuesday at a Los Alamos National Bank branch in White Rock, FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said in an email to The Associated Press.
White Rock is a bedroom community to Los Alamos and 18 miles (29 kilometers) northwest of Santa Fe.
Fisher didn’t respond to requests for information about other aspects of the incident, including the customer’s actions, and Los Alamos County Police Chief Dino Sgambellone didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Los Alamos Monitor reported that several witnesses reported hearing shots before police arrived and after an armed man dressed in black held up the bank.
Herman Manzanares, owner of an auto shop next door to the bank, told the Monitor that he and his employees heard shots and saw the suspect run away from the bank “and we saw the man who shot at him go back into the bank. We called 911 and so did the bank.”
Traffic was snarled as police sought the suspect, asked residents to stay indoors and school children were locked inside their schools.
“It was just chaos,” Manzanares said.
Police asked White Rock residents to provide authorities with any video surveillance footage, and the FBI offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
He was described as thin, white male, about 5-foot-10 to 6-feet tall. He reportedly was wearing a dark, hooded jacket, a dark baseball cap, and his face was covered.
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