The Chase Bank branch in Wanamaker is the scene of a robbery and shooting on Thursday, July 2, that finds a U.S. Post Office worker, Robert Norman, wounded by a fleeing gunman. FTONEWS.com photo.
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Mail carrier wounded; fleeing suspect apprehended
Two police officers stand alongside evidence – a packet of money and a pool of blood – on the sidewalk and street at the Chase Bank branch crime scene in Wanamaker.
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The mid-afternoon robbery of the Chase Bank branch in downtown Wanamaker on Thursday, July 2, turned nasty when the suspect, while fleeing, shot a postal worker in the face before being apprehended by law enforcement personnel only minutes later after crashing his getaway vehicle.
Robert Norman, a Wanamaker Post Office branch letter carrier, reportedly was shot in the eye by the robber outside the bank on Northeastern Avenue across from the Wheatley’s building.
An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman, Lieutenant Jeffrey Duhamell, said Norman, 54, was transported to Methodist Hospital, where he is listed in stable but serious condition. Duhamell said the 29-year postal veteran was able to talk with police investigators at the scene of the shooting.
Ironically, a passer-by heading southeast on Southeastern Avenue prior to the bank robbery had spotted what he considered to be a suspicious person wearing a trench coat and walking in front of the bar entrance to the New Bethel Ordinary restaurant located a half block from the bank. He also noted that the individual was carrying what looked like a rifle inside the coat.
Franklin Township resident Gene Austin said that after noticing the suspect he turned left off of Southeastern at the stoplight and pulled into the bank’s parking lot. He wound up making a 9-1-1 call, alerting law enforcement officials of a possible robbery in progress at the bank. His 9-1-1 contact instructed him to stay on the line, asking where the suspicious person was that he had spotted.
“I lost track of the man in the trench coat for a moment,” Austin said, “but when people around the bank began scattering I pulled back onto Southeastern and parked across from the bank in front of Logan’s (automotive repair business).”
Still on the 9-1-1 line, Austin reported seeing the robbery suspect walk out the front door on Southeastern, take a left turn and encounter the mail carrier on the south side of the bank.
“I saw the man in the trench coat fire his gun – it looked like a rife – and the mail man immediately dropped to the street,” Austin said. “When the man with the gun took off, heading back down toward The Ordinary, he and I made eye contact. That was a scary moment.”
Austin hopped in his pick-up truck and headed west on Northeastern Avenue to Franklin Road, and then turned right and continued to the stoplight at Southeastern Avenue. Having recently become a managing partner of The Gold Mine on Southeastern, his intention was to go to the restaurant and have the doors locked in case the bank robber would make his way in that direction.
“After I turned west on Southeastern, it soon became apparent that there was a car weaving back and forth behind me,” Austin said. “As I looked back through my rear view mirror, I saw the car crash behind me on the north side of the road.”
Austin said he immediately stopped but the area on Southeastern between Franklin Road and the turn-off onto Hanna Avenue soon became inundated with police cars. At least two dozen units representing IMPD, Indiana State Police and the FBI flocked to the crash scene. Officers with guns drawn looked on while a green Pontiac Aztec sat smoking in a ditch when coming to a sudden stop after hitting head-long into a culvert-like road embankment.
With red lights flashing ahead, motorists heading toward Wanamaker had pulled over to the side of Southeastern Avenue and soon were blocked in all directions by the arriving police vehicles.
According to an eyewitness report from one of the motorists, the driver (of the crashed Pontiac) – later identified as Brooke Adebe, 42 – eventually was able to open his door, stumble to the pavement and roll over facing toward the sky. Officers cautiously approached the fallen man, quickly handcuffed him and conducted a search.
The motorist was told there had been a bank robbery in Wanamaker and that someone had been shot. The man who emerged from the crashed car was believed to be the robbery and shooting suspect.
According to Lieutenant Duhamell, the gunman’s getaway was delayed somewhat by a Good Samaritan who used his own vehicle in an attempt to block in the suspect’s car. An off-duty reserve officer, who happened to be nearby when the robbery and shooting occurred, took up what proved to be a brief pursuit that ended when the suspect crashed his vehicle.
Duhamell said the bank robbery and shooting occurred just after 3 o’clock, when the gunman entered the Chase Bank armed with two weapons – the rifle and a handgun. Reportedly, he fired one shot into the air to announce the robbery while there were several customers inside the busy bank, then grabbed some cash and fled from the building.
At about the same time, the mail carrier had parked in front of the bank on Southeastern Avenue while on his regular delivery route. Some reports indicate Norman may have confronted the fleeing robber.
In addition to Austin witnessing the postman’s shooting, others in the area heard the gunshot and at least one nearby merchant also saw Norman fall to the street. While Austin remained on the 9-1-1 line, it was reported that a silent alarm from within the bank also was triggered.
After crashing his car and being apprehended, Abebe was transported to Wishard Hospital, where he was held in a secure unit with unspecified injuries. He faces preliminary charges of:
- Attempted murder
- Robbery
- Carrying a handgun without a license
Indiana Department of Correction records indicate Abebe has served prison time for burglary, welfare fraud and various other charges.
A police crime laboratory unit is on the scene of a bank robbery and shooting at the Chase Bank branch located at the corner of Southeastern and Northeastern avenues in Wanamaker.
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FTONEWS.com
The Franklin Township Education Foundation’s 13th Golf Fore Kids tournament, scheduled for Thursday, July 16, is looking for additional foursomes.
