Pair Of Robberies End In Gunfire

A man, apparently upset that his loan application had been denied, opened fire on four KeyBank employees in an affluent Indianapolis suburb on Thursday, killing a woman who was going to offer him an umbrella to ward off the morning rain.

Penny Schmitt, 32, was shot several times and died Thursday morning after telling the suspect that his application had been turned down, authorities said. Three of her co-workers were injured, one critically, spawning a massive manhunt that ended when the suspect fatally shot himself as he crouched in a tree top with police closing in.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp said the surviving victims believed the suspect was in the bank on Wednesday to apply for a loan. He returned Thursday morning just after the bank opened, and Schmitt told him that his application had been denied.

After he walked out, Schmitt started toward the door to offer an umbrella. Before she could get to him, he turned around, walked back into the bank and opened fire before making off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

"He didn't say anything; he didn't give any warning," Leerkamp said. "It almost appeared the money was an afterthought."

For more than six hours, officers and FBI agents scoured a mile-square area near the bank, while police and television helicopters circled overhead and heavily armed SWAT teams tramped through backyards looking for the suspect.

By late afternoon, police closed in on the suspect, who was sitting in a pine tree about 50 feet above a residential neighborhood and less than 400 yards from the bank.

One of the officers was bending down under the tree to pick something up when another officer spotted the suspect.

Carmel Police Chief Mike Fogerty said as officers surrounded the tree, they heard a single gunshot, which they believe was the suspect shooting himself.

They used a bullhorn to call up to the man, but he didn't move. As a precaution, they then fired rubber bullets at the man to stun him if he was still alive and moved in.

After the shots rang out, residents milled around the normally quiet street, taking photos of the dead suspect hanging in the tree.

Less than an hour after the KeyBank shooting, a man entered another bank a few miles away, herded several employees and customers into the bank's vault area, and fled in a customer's car with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The FBI said the two robberies appeared not to be connected.

In the second robbery, police fired on the suspect as the car was leaving the bank's parking lot and again after the suspect ran from the car to a wooded area, critically wounding him.

"It was a running gun battle. It was hiding behind trees and shooting at each other," said deputy chief Mike Hoak of the Marion County Sheriff's Department.

The suspect, who was not identified, was shot three times below the waist and was in critical condition Thurday afternoon.

By Ashley H. Grant