East Long Beach bank robbery leaves three shot, two customers tackle and disarm gunman

Three people were shot Friday morning after an armed gun man dressed in motorcycle leathers stormed an East Long Beach bank in an attempted robbery.
Witnesses to the shooting at the Farmers and Merchants Bank on Bellflower Boulevard near 23rd Street described the gunman as something like a character in a Mad Max film, saying he was dressed in black motorcycle leathers and wearing a motorcycle helmet covered in red tape.
Only the clear visor showed and his face was completely obscured, witnesses said.
Parked outside the bank was a sport cycle also completely covered in the same red tape.
Customer David Jones said he was talking to the bank manager shortly before 10:30 a.m. when he saw the man walk in and immediately knew something bad was about to happen.
"When I couldn't see his face I knew right then something was very wrong with the guy," Jones said.
As Jones said that to the manager the manager agreed and hit a silent alarm, Jones said.
That is also when the gunman lifted a handgun into the air and "started dropping F-bombs."
The suspect robbed a customer at gunpoint then turned to a crowd of people lined up at the teller's desk.
One of the bank's customers tackled the gunman, causing the would-be robber to fall face first to the floor with his arms pinned beneath him, Jones said.
That is when the first shot rang out Jones said. He estimated that as many as six shots may have been fired.
That is also when Jones realized that the gunman had two weapons on him and had ammunition belts filled with bullets strapped across his chest.
As the gunman was tackled the bullets spilled out across the floor, Jones.
"I kicked one gun away and I reached in and pulled the other weapon way and tossed it under a nearby desk," Jones said.
One gun looked like a .45-caliber semi-automatic and the other looked like a .38 revolver, Jones said.
He thought the gunman was shot in the elbow and the man who initially tackled the suspect was hit in the thigh.
Police said Friday that three people were shot during the attempted armed robbery.
During the hold-up several shots were fired, Massacani said. Hit by the gunfire were two witnesses and the suspect, she said.
"All of this happened before our officers arrived," Massacani said.
Customers and employees inside the Noah's Bagel shop, located across the parking lot from the bank, said they either didn't hear the shots, or thought the popping sound was something more benign, like a tray dropping or a car backfiring.
"I didn't click," said Noah's employee Danielle Mott.
She did hear "one shot vividly," Mott said, describing the sound as a popping noise.
But it wasn't until police swarmed the bank about four minutes later, filling the parking lot and obscuring the bank, that Noah's customers and employees realized something terrible had happened, Mott said.
"The customers were getting excited and people started to panic," she said.
After police arrived they locked down all the businesses on the corner lot and would not let anyone leave for several hours. People inside the bagel shop then watched as police escorted people from the bank one-by-one as a helicopter buzzed overhead, Mott said.
Mott saw one man taken out on a stretcher holding his leg with a large bandage wrapped around his thigh.
Mott's co-worker, Alonna Martinez, said they heard from customers that the bank's security guard, who they all know only as Frank, was also shot during the botched robbery.
That upset the staff at Noah's, who said the guard not only watched over the bank but was equally protective of the staff and Noah's and would always make sure employees got to their cars safely at night.
"Frank takes care of us," said Martinez, adding that she and her co-workers were worried about him and hoped he would be OK.
Massacani said it wasn't clear Friday afternoon who fired the shots and she would not confirm witness reports about the customers tackling and disarming the gunman, or the security guard getting shot.
The bank did have security on staff, but police had not yet confirmed if they were armed, Massacani said.
The bank's security guards were able to hold down the suspect until officers arrived, she said.
All three of the people shot are expected to survive, she added.
Long Beach Police and FBI agents were still investigating the shooting at 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. About two dozen police cars filled the bank's parking lot -- which sits at 2211 N. Bellflower Blvd., just north of the Los Altos Shopping Center -- and officers shut down parts of 23rd Street and Bellflower Boulevard to traffic immediately after the incident.
The roads were open to traffic by 1:30 p.m.
The FBI released photos last month of a bank robber, dubbed the "sport motorcycle bandit" wanted for a serious of armed robberies at banks in Long Beach, Los Alamitos and Rancho Palos Verdes from 2008 through January of this year.
That suspect had taken at least one hostage during a heist and was considered armed and dangerous.
Authorities could not confirm Friday if the suspect in Friday's heist was the same suspect the FBI has been tracking for the last two years.
While Jones talked to a crush of print and broadcast reporters, his wife, Abbey, and his 5-year-old daughter, Sophia, watched.
They were not at the bank with Jones at the time of the shooting but were close by at a relative's home.
"I'm going to tell (her friends) my daddy's a hero," when she gets to school Monday, Sophia proudly said.
Abbey said it was both unfortunate that her husband had to go to through the harrowing ordeal, and fortunate that he was able to intercede without getting hurt.
"Drama follows him," she said.
Jones added that the real hero of the day was the first customer to tackle the gunman.
"If he hadn't jumped on him I probably wouldn't have done what I did," Jones said.