Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Two Waxahachie men are being credited with helping stop a bank robbery Friday.
Greg Bowden, a manager at the University Gardens Apartments, said he first noticed a suspicious vehicle driving through the complex.
After circling through several times, the driver parked and headed in the direction of the First Financial Bank across the street.
Bowden and one of the residents, Dewayne Eiland, went to check it out.
“When he came out, he had a handful of money,” Bowden said.
“When he got to the street, he just dropped his money, money was going everywhere,” Eiland said.
The men said the suspect had money in stuffed in his pockets and in his hands. They stopped to help as he was trying to pick it up, and Bowden asked where he got the cash.
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“'Where did you get all this money at?'” Bowden asked. “He said, 'I cashed a check,'" Bowden said.
Bowden then noticed what appeared to be a gun partially tucked into his pocket, and as he grabbed it, Eiland tackled the man and held him until police arrived.
“He just kept begging me to please let him up because he couldn’t breathe and I was hurting him, and that was not my intention to,” Eiland said.
Then men quickly realized the gun was fake. It was plastic and wrapped in black electrical tape. Police tell NBC 5 it was a water gun.
He didn’t show the fake gun during the robbery, according to police.
Instead, he told the teller it was a robbery and demanded money. He then produced the fake weapon as he was leaving the bank, according to investigators.
Police say Donavan Pyle, 50, from Fort Worth was arrested for aggravated robbery. He’s currently being held in the Ellis County Jail on a $50,000 bond.
Donavan told police he was down on his luck and wanted to commit suicide by cop, according to Lt. Todd Woodruff with the Waxahachie Police Department.
“I just kinda look at it as we might have saved the guy’s life,” Eiland said.
The men said they shouldn’t be called heroes for their actions, they are simply good Samaritans who were in the right place at the right time.
