With a pistol in each hand, a man shot up a Fort Worth bank on Wednesday before making an unusual getaway by slowly walking into heavy traffic, police said.
The bank robber fired as many as 15 shots into the walls and ceiling of the Pinnacle Bank on Western Center Boulevard near Beach Street as terrified employees hit the floor, police said. There were no customers in the bank at the time.
"I just heard boom, boom, boom,” said Darrell Franklin, manager of an oil-change business across the street.
Franklin said he soon saw the robber walk out the front door and into traffic on Western Center.
"He didn't care about traffic or anything,” Franklin said. “He just calmly walked across the street. He wasn't running or anything."
Joshua Lawes, an employee who works with Franklin, said the gunman seemed “cool and calm” -- and oblivious to the oncoming cars.
“Cars were slamming on their brakes, blowing their horns,” Lawes said. “He was just walking straight. He wasn’t looking.”
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The robbery has attracted attention because of the violent nature of the crime, Fort Worth police said.
"It is unusual for a suspect to discharge a firearm in a bank robbery, much less, in this case, the suspect produced two handguns,” said police spokesman Sgt. Chad Mahaffey.
Investigators do not suspect the man in any other recent bank robbery, police said. The amount of money taken in the heist was not disclosed.
Witnesses said the robber calmly got in a White Suburban, possibly with out-of-state license plates, before slowly driving away.
"He didn't 'errk' or anything,” Lawes said. “He didn't make any scene. He just drove off -- used his signal lights and everything."
