Without Mercy | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

in virginia a bank robbery explodes in violence spraying bullets from automatic weapons of anyone in their way the robbers disappear with no reliable witnesses the police and fbi have to decipher fragmented evidence to identify the shooters and then bring them to justice [Applause] [Music] so [Music] despite what you see in the movies most bank robbers come in quietly pass a note and slip away they want cash not bloodshed but in richmond virginia a pair of gunmen entered a bank with their guns blazing i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office the raw violence of the crime shocked even the most seasoned investigators who vowed to catch them before they struck again [Music] throughout the 1990s richmond virginia averaged about 10 bank robberies a year prior to 1997 not one of them was fatal on the morning of january 30th 1997 the employees of a small bank on the east end of the city began the day's business 23 year old christine edwards one of the bank's tellers arrived for work [Music] her colleague 21 year old tracy freeman was already there alison davis a customer service representative and richard hartman the bank's security guard also began their day stephen reed a regular customer arrived shortly thereafter he entered the bank as the tellers finished setting up and was greeted by hartman come on in no one saw the two men slipping in the bank's rear door first national bank oh yes when the men struck they did so swiftly and without mercy [Music] 80 yards away richmond police officers michael webb and dave martin were at a convenience store getting coffee for their morning shift hey hey hey hey something's happening gunshots in the bank the bank bank right up the street as the officers responded richmond dispatch ordered backup units to the scene 929 116. [Music] at the rear of the bank the officers spotted a security guard lying in the parking lot man down looked like he's been shot [Music] [Laughter] officer martin guarded the front his web went to check on the guard he was still alive barely webb called for an ambulance now then two armed men emerged from the bank stop 19 119 w shots are being fired [Music] the officer knew he was pinned down and out gunned they stopped shooting i stopped shooting and i just knew these two guys were gonna come each side of the vehicle after me i changed magazines and sat there and waited for a couple of seconds but the gunman never came for him officer martin left his position to back up webb but the assailant surprised him [Music] with only a service weapon martin was out gunned which allowed the robbers to get away from him all the officer could do was report their position as they escaped across the cemetery got a black male running with black jacket toward divert town road two men the richmond officer saw a cloud of red dye the sign that the gunman had stolen a bundle of money containing a time dye pack the men left over the next wall and the officer lost sight of them the dispatcher forwarded the information to the henrico county police department officer martin searched the neighborhood knowing two men with automatic weapons could be around any corner but found no sign of the suspects [Music] and henrico patrolman arrived on the scene emts arrived they tended to the wounded guard outside richmond police entered the building looking for any other gunman that might still be inside and to check the condition of the other employees they found two tellers both shots okay come on out man come on everything's fine alison davis had taken cover everything's okay she was not injured but paralyzed with fear and taken to the hospital for evaluation [Music] after clearing the bank the officers felt it was safe to let the emts care for them [Music] for teller christine edwards it was too late tracy freeman in severe shock and bleeding heavily was stabilized and rushed to the hospital all along with richard hartman the security guard [Music] at the richmond police homicide division detective tom leonard was disturbed by the robbers brutality this was our most violent bank robbery that we can remember in our history so our fear was they were in the neighborhood and we need to get him off the streets leonard headed to the bank officers collected items dropped by the robbers when they fled including a larson 380 semi-automatic handgun and the clip to a tec-9 another semi-automatic weapon a k-9 officer with a tracking dog began searching for the suspects the dog followed ascent through the cemetery on art avenue the dog lost the trail henrico and richmond police canvassed the neighborhood asking the residents if they had seen any strange men fleeing the area rita but no one saw anything suspicious detective leonard arrived at the crime scene with an evidence technician we immediately shut down that bank and the only people that were inside the bank was myself and forensic people so as we went through the bank looking for forensic evidence that we could pick up and look at we found a lot of spent shale cases which were fired we had some that were on fire those shells were nine millimeter likely used in the tech nine behind the tellers counter investigators found a backpack apparently left by the robbers inside was a piece of green tablecloth a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid a box of matches [Music] and a note reading please wait five minutes we couldn't figure out what that was all about on the surface of the teller's counter investigators spotted several boot prints they preserved each print with tape which they would later compare with footwear collected from potential suspects because the bank was federally insured police called in fbi special agent wayne waddell from the richmond field office [Music] at the bank he and detective leonard checked a videotape that had recorded several surveillance cameras simultaneously but there was a problem something caused the film in our opinion to uh to not be not be working correctly it went one camera to another camera to another camera and you were getting different angles from the from the front door the rear door and from different teller positions [Music] they would need to make still photos from the individual frames to get any useful details [Music] special agent eduardo alford joined the investigation he knew the fbi would not stop until the gunmen were captured [Music] i'm sure if you talk to every person that was involved in this investigation they would tell you the same thing they they wanted to stay on this case around the clock which essentially is what happened evidence collection at the bank lasted for hours later on in the evening around 5 30 or 6 we received word that henrico county had received a report of a break-in i went over to the break-in site it was on art avenue across from the cemetery not far from where the k-9 unit had lost the trail of the suspects we didn't know if it had anything to do with bank robbery or not a young woman that lived there with her father found the front door had been knocked open and went in the house and discovered a lot of items that appeared knocked around or perhaps taken when special agent waddell went inside a henrico officer pointed out a hole in the it ceiling someone had stepped through from above [Music] they feared someone might be hiding in the attic no one was there they searched for evidence investigators found a pair of boots they also found a backpack and a coat [Music] inside was another note reading please wait five minutes they also found another green tablecloth red dye like that used in bank dye packs covered many of the items so we absolutely felt that there was a connection between the the house break-in and the bank robbery but they didn't know how the two crimes were related we had no idea why the bank robbers would come to that house was it uh an opportune moment did they know someone there uh was there something that drew them there you may have already was at happenstance we had no idea we interviewed the uh the owner and his daughter and the daughter's boyfriend and you interview these people because what are these bank robbers what are these suspects doing in your house and we're trying to find is there a link or is there not a link the residents were equally confused they reported that whoever broke into the house stole some men's clothing suits and jackets during questioning the boyfriend acted nervous and claimed he had no information to add what time did you get here at the hospital a richmond detective sought out the wounded victims who could provide eyewitness accounts but he was unable to see anyone the two wounded survivors were still in surgery and could not be interviewed alison davis the customer representative who had escaped injury under her desk was so distraught she had to be heavily sedated steven reed a customer inside the bank had been grazed by a bullet and had come to the emergency room on his own but he was also of no help he had alzheimer's disease and could not remember any useful information by the end of that first day we still had nothing more than what we had to begin with so we knew there was going to be a ways to go it was going to be a tough case in richmond virginia two armed bank robbers escaped with ten thousand dollars cash leaving two employees wounded and 23 year old teller christine edwards dead the community was stunned as was assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari this girl was an angel and these guys they just walked into the bank without a word spoken and shot her dead is sick determined to find her killers richmond homicide detective tom leonard and fbi special agent wayne waddell had to pursue the case without the benefit of eyewitness accounts the problem with with the employees and the in the customer in the bank is they were all traumatized we actually could not talk to any of them for several several days the detective tried to interview allison davis the customer representative who had taken cover under her desk and escaped injury but she was too traumatized by the ordeal hospital staff had to sedate her she was unable to speak there were no witnesses available to tell investigators what actually happened inside the bank all they had to understand this offense was a flawed videotape of the surveillance cameras according to detective tom leonard that really caused us a problem trying to piece things together because we're missing little bits and pieces of the video so you didn't get to see the whole robbery occur like you normally would working with still photos captured from the surveillance video and records of the physical evidence recovered from the bank the investigators pieced the crime together moment by moment [Music] there was a complex series of events all taking place in a matter of seconds you could see where the bank had obviously opened but the only people were inside were the security guard the bank representatives and one customer the customer was standing there at the uh the walkway area where you go through the lines talking to the security guard the lead gunman headed straight for the teller's counter the first guy bypassed the security guard without even looking at him without even noticing him in our minds we realized the front guy was not worried about the security guard he knew that the second guy was going to take him out in the photos investigators saw the second robber pointing the tec-9 at the guard the first robber reached the counter and shot both tellers killing one crack that weapon and he walked all the way down here ballistics testing showed both were shot with the larson 380 recovered outside the bank the bullet hole behind the customer representative's desk showed the gunman turned and fired at her but the shot missed investigators noted the unfired nine millimeter rounds found on the floor this suggested the tec-9 had likely jammed and the gunman ejected rounds trying to clear it the photos revealed there was a brief standoff while the second robert tried to clear his tech 9 the first attempted to shoot the guard with a larson but that gun malfunctioned too the larson 380 recovered outside the bank was found with a jammed cartridge when the guns jammed the customer stephen reed fled followed by richard hartman the guard unable to clear the larson the lead gunman pulled an ar-15 assault rifle and followed them spent shell casings and bullet strikes found outside supported witness statements as to what had happened next in the bank's drive-through one witness saw a gunman chasing the fleeing customer he grazed his arm [Music] the guard tried his best to stop the cure but was struck by multiple rounds the gunman returned inside [Music] hartman was still alive the witness watched as he entered the rear of the bank [Music] he pulls open that back door investigators realized hartman had risked his life trying to draw the robbers out the robbers loaded a backpack with money including one bundle that contained a die pack the guard approached fired but missed [Music] another witness saw the guard flee the rear of the bank the lead gunman pursued him into the parking lot and fired the final shot to the temple permanently blinded richard hartman [Music] moments later officers webb and martin found him there agent waddell and detective leonard now had a clear account of the crime since the robbers came into the bank shooting investigators believed their intent was to murder everyone to eliminate all witnesses at the bank the contents of the robbers backpack revealed a plan to minimize witnesses on the outside the table clause and the note would i think to be put over the doors uh to ward off anyone coming coming up to the bank give us five minutes we're still cleaning give us five minutes we're not ready to open up yet something like that with the bank to themselves the robbers could take their time the piece of evidence that disturbed investigators the most was the lighter fluid they believed the robbers were planning to use it to set the bank on fire as they left [Music] investigators knew they were dealing with especially violent criminals who acted with no remorse we needed to get him off the streets our fear was these people were gonna get out into the community and commit some more murders because they'd already been bold enough to come into the bank and start shooting people we'd have to gun fight with these people to try to catch them later and the criminals were well armed they still had an ar-15 the civilian version of the military's assault rifle and a tec-9 a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol the one weapon recovered the murder weapon was a larson 380 semi-automatic a records check revealed it had been stolen weeks earlier investigators released details of the guns to the press and asked for the public's help in tracking down the weapons it worked according to assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari we got lucky we got very lucky there was a there was a person who was out there that overheard a woman that she worked with say that she thought that her husband sold those weapons the fbi and the richmond pd followed up on that lead and in fact did locate a gentleman who was a legitimate and licensed gun dealer [Music] at first the dealer was reluctant to talk to authorities he didn't want to incriminate himself by admitting that he might have sold weapons used in a murder after agents assured him he could not be held liable since the guns were sold legally he admitted he had sold a tec-9 and an ar-15 a few days before the robbery he located the atf forms filled out by the purchaser investigators now had a name to move on the gun dealer told us that he had sold the weapons to jermaine sims and we got hold of all of our all the units all the guys working the case everybody was out trying to locate him they finally ascertained that sims was out of town while the search for sims continued investigators kept following their only other promising lead the art avenue house that the robbers had broken into we started checking everything we could find out about the owner and his family the girl that lived there had a boyfriend we started checking him out so we started from scratch with just basically an investigation on every person in the house the boyfriend who had acted nervous during interviews consented to a polygraph test the polygraph examiner asked questions about the robbery and murder while special agent waddell observed after an hour of questioning the polygraph results were inconclusive did you rob that bank the boyfriend could not be eliminated as a suspect special agent waddell knew he needed to re-examine the house and went back with a search warrant this time he returned with an fbi evidence response team he was determined that a more thorough search would reveal a connection between the bank robbery and the break-ins the ert technicians scoured the attic [Music] behind a wall board they found a tec-9 semi-automatic pistol and an ar-15 assault rifle precisely the type of guns used in the crime they were still loaded and their serial numbers were intact special agent waddell proceeded to check if these were the same guns purchased by germain sims we wanted to verify that they were in fact the weapons that had been bought from the gun dealer and using the bank robber so we called back to the office we read off the serial number make and model of these weapons and they were compared to the atf firearms form [Music] they were the same weapons [Music] a ballistics expert compared slugs recovered from the bank to slugs fired from the recovered ar-15 [Music] they matched connecting that weapon to the fatal bank robbery it seemed certain that jermaine sims had indeed bought the weapons used in the robbery and murdered now the fbi and richmond police needed to find him in richmond federal agents determined two weapons used in a deadly bank robbery were purchased by a man named jermaine sims agents could not find sims but a background check revealed he was receiving government assistance they followed up on that lead at the social services office an administrator confirmed that sims regularly came in to pick up food stamps she flagged his name on their computers and agreed to page the fbi the next time the suspect showed up first agents went to the address listed on the atf forum and spoke to sims mother she hadn't seen her son since she kicked him out the previous week days later richmond agents received a page from the social services agency sims was there okay it's just a matter of pulling your check up the administrator stalled sims until the agents arrived [Music] they hoped he didn't suspect anything when the agents arrived the suspect seemed calm excuse mr special agents fbi i need you to come with me they asked sims to come in for questioning [Music] [Music] they took him to a nearby police station where investigators tried to get him to talk about the guns but interviewing the suspect was no easy task according to assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari sims was a difficult uh person to deal with he was he was a person who was filled with hate and hostility he didn't want to be there he didn't want to certainly cooperate with us we were dragging bits and bits of information out of him and he was really only providing us information that we already knew we were having a lot of trouble bringing him to the table so to speak sims denied any involvement in the crime stating he was at his girlfriend's apartment at the time of the robbery over several hours altamari kept pressuring him until finally sims admitted he had bought the ar-15 in the tec-9 with the intent to sell them later for a profit he said he stashed the weapons at a friend's house a man named raw but claimed he couldn't remember the address instead he gave directions now who else is this guy rob the interview continued while special agent wayne waddell tried to confirm sim's story sims told us where this house was located and described the house to us we went to the locations we could not find the house determined altamari confronted sims with his deception do you think you're dealing with a bunch of amateurs here but sims maintained his story that he still knew nothing about the bank robbery you've already told me that by then authorities had located sim's girlfriend who supported his alibi but investigators had strong evidence connecting him to the crime you're going to jail for the rest of your life he was informed that he was under arrest for bank [Music] robbery [Music] there's nothing like um the silence of a of a jail cell to focus somebody on on their problem and he had a huge problem he had his name um on the title to these weapons that were used in this in this robbery and we thought that if we gave him a little time to think for himself that he would eventually come to the conclusion that it was in his best interest to cooperate with us after a week of incarceration and repeated interviews sims decided to talk tell me about the guns he said after he bought the guns he left them with two friends rasheed jones and lafond bobbitt [Music] he still denied having any involvement in the robbery but investigators continued to work on him he admitted that that of course he knew that they had robbed the bank he still claimed that he was surprised that they had used his guns to do it and expressed his outrage that they would have they would have done this to him and gotten him sim said that after the robbery bobbitton jones came to his apartment wearing clothes he had never seen them in before they told him about the botched robbery the gun fight and their escape they explained that they had broken into the house on art avenue choosing it at random they stole some clothes and stashed their guns behind the wall board in the attic [Music] as they were leaving jones accidentally stepped through the ceiling they then slipped out avoiding the patrolling officers they had the money with them but it was stained red from the dye pack police records revealed that lafond bobbitt had 11 prior convictions and was free on bond from charges related to grand theft auto rasheed jones had seven prior convictions including grand larceny and was on parole investigators reduced the charge against sims from bank robbery to conspiracy now with the identity of the killers in hand the real chase could begin after a 1997 bank heist that left one teller dead richmond virginia authorities believed they had identified the gunman as lafon bobbitt and rashid jones they had no idea where to look for jones but they did set up surveillance at bobbitt's last known address assistant u.s attorney ken nelson was determined to apprehend these men as quickly as possible we had to get these two cold-blooded killers off the street as soon as we can so we would eliminate the possibility that they could do the same thing again and someone else would get killed and yet we had a lot of work to do collecting the physical evidence getting it analyzed by the lab [Music] they needed more time to build the federal case but could not afford to have two killers on the loose prosecutor's office in henrico county to charge bobbitt with the burglary the breaking and entry of the art avenue address with respect to jones he was in violation of his parole so we got a warrant for parole violation special agent wayne waddell received the go-ahead to bring in the fugitives on those charges we had two agents watching lafon bobbitt's house the two agents were paul messing and eddie alford call went down and we finally get authorization to arrest lefon bobbitt i get hold of uh messing and alfred they tell me that bobbitt has just left his house the agent told the surveillance team to follow bobbitt then headed off to back them up the agents followed the suspect into town where he boarded a bus they kept in contact with special agent waddell updating him on their location soon waddell caught up they decided to arrest bobbitt at the next bus stop bus is right in front of me all right then four i'm getting ready to come around you right now riddell pulled around front to get into position the other agents pulled in behind [Music] when the bus stopped the agents were [Music] ready hold on bob if you under arrest a parole donation put your hands up [Music] within moments suspect lafon babet was in custody investigators executed a search warrant on bobbitt's home in his bedroom they discovered a manual for a 380 larson pistol the same model used in the murder they also found several spent 380 shells for fbi special agent eduardo alford this circumstantial evidence suggested it was bobbitt who fired the fatal shot it was actually the weapon that one of the tellers was killed with finding that shell casing was very helpful as far as determining which one of the subjects or suspects might have had possession of this weapon on this particular day the fbi lab identified bobbitt's fingerprints on items left at the bank by the robbers the first evidence directly linking him to the crime technicians at the fbi's question documents unit compared the boot impressions found at the bank with boots recovered from the art avenue house and from bobbitt's home one of the latent footwear impressions was consistent with a boot that was left at the art avenue address another layton was found to be consistent with a boot found at bobbitt's house at a later search and so that circumstantially again not conclusively but circumstantially placed bobbitt and his apparel in that bank [Music] the boots found in the attic likely belong to bobbitt's alleged partner in the crime rashi jones federal prosecutors now charged lafond bobbitt with the bank robbery and murder but investigators still needed to find rashid jones three months after the crime authorities received a tip from a store clerk he reported a customer had attempted to pay with die stained bills the clerk refused to accept them mr jones uh had been in that particular area in the south end of richmond trying to exchange some of this money so the future task force piece that information together and they were really able to hone in on that particular area based on the proximity of this particular merchant store the fbi focused on that neighborhood working all of their contacts the effort paid off the information that came in uh was from just a reliable source of information somebody that was aware of this crime and knew uh mr jones and was able to uh pinpoint a location where he was hiding jones was staying in a run-down apartment building frequented by transients agents were able to obtain the cooperation of a man living there the arrest was planned for 5 am when jones would likely be asleep they called the location and spoke to their contact inside he said jones was there sleeping and he had a gun the contact also warned there were other people in the apartment and most of the lights did not work as the arrest team approached the building they went through a final briefing reviewing photos of their target they anticipated a dangerous confrontation jones was armed desperate and surrounded by innocent bystanders in 1997 the richmond fugitive task force swat unit closed in on rasheed jones suspected of bank robbery and murder they'd received a tip that jones was hiding out in an apartment from their contact inside they learned jones was armed and most of the lights did not work there were several innocent people in the apartment [Music] the building was dark and foreign complicating an already difficult challenge in which swat had to take down an armed fugitive while protecting innocent bystanders the team decided to sneak up on jones silently they hoped he had not been tipped off when they reached the target apartment an agent phoned their contact inside fbi we're here the contact was escorted out of the [Music] building [Music] when they made it to the room where jones was said to be sleeping he was gone so was his gun tension mounted as swat began searching the rest of the apartment [Music] get your hands up man get yours up come on get up get up they found and removed two other residents every room was cleared except one a bathroom jones we know you're in there come out put your hands up [Music] that's him let's go to the team's relief jones was unarmed and surrendered the manhunt was over agent searched for his weapon they discovered it in a closet its firing pin broken [Music] had the gun been functional the arrest might not have gone so smoothly jones was immediately charged with probation violation and later for the bank robbery on february 25th 1998 the trial of rasheed jones and the fawn bobbitt began but it would not be an easy case assistant u.s attorney ken melson and his prosecution team were unable to use any of the people in the bank as witnesses none of them could really testify for us because the guard was blind as a result of being wounded one teller was dead another one had never had the opportunity to even turn around to see anything and a third a third employee was unable to testify because she didn't see anything she was under a desk during most of the robbery melson found a way to deal with the lack of witnesses by commissioning a digital recreation of the crime we had to stand in for them digitally and show the jury what happened inside that bank we were the witnesses voice to the jury during the trial so they could be involved and experience the agony of the victims experienced the moment of the bank robbery and that would give them not only the true feeling of what went on in the bank but the true carnage and intent of the defendants after hearing six days of testimony the jury convicted both gunmen on all charges assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari in the trial they sat there smugglers all get out and it was until after they were convicted that you could really see him start to worry because then it was about them then they were worried bobbitt and jones were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole jermaine sims who purchased two of the weapons used in the robbery was convicted on conspiracy accessory before the fact of murder and several weapons violations he too was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as the victims and their families continue to heal they and the city of richmond know that jones bobbitt and sims will never be a threat to anyone again you

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail

Id: uf6Qrr6azcA

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021