So it appears the activities of the Green Skeleton Bandit come to an end. Cops say a U.S. marshal shot him as he was running out of an AutoZone. The marshal was escorting a Central American official in town for a gang summit and who happened in on the shop when the heist occurred. Weird timing, huh?

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A United States marshal shot and killed a man believed to be the "Green Skeleton Bandit," responsible for six robberies in the North Hollywood area since Feb. 28, police said this morning.

The man happened to be fleeing the scene of a robbery holding a knife and $600 cash Tuesday evening when he was shot by a marshal who was escorting a South American official into an auto parts store, police said.

The man, who has not been identified, was taken to a local hospital with unspecified injuries where he later died, police said.

The marshal was one of two U.S. marshals escorting a police official from the Central American country of Belize who was in town for a gang summit.

They stopped in at the AutoZone, in the 5100 block of Vineland Avenue, about 5:45 p.m. because the Belize official wanted to shop there.

"Basically, he walked into a robbery," Harding said of the marshal. "He sees a man walking out with a large amount of cash and a butcher knife."

A source close to the investigation said the man was the "Green Skeleton Bandit" who robbed North Hollywood fast food restaurants and mini-markets since Feb. 28. He was responsible for taking possibly as much as $689. In one heist, the source said, he took $9 from an H&K Mini Market on Sherman Way. In two others, he wasnt' able to get anything because the clerks could not get the cash registers to open, the source said.

He was dubbed the "Green Skeleton Bandit" because he was seen on at least one surveillance camera with a sweatsuit with a green skeleton outline on front and back and a hood with an outline of a green skull that zipped up to conceal his face.

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