Teller stable after shooting, robbery suspects caught

GREENSBURG, Pa. (1/12/10)--Police have taken into custody two suspects in the shooting of a teller and robbery at Westmoreland Community FCU in Hempfield, Pa.

On Friday, a gunman entered the credit union and fired four shots. The first shattered a computer monitor and then hit a teller in the stomach. As of press time, the teller was in stable condition at a local hospital, President/CEO Maria LaVelle told the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA).

A second bullet appeared to target another teller's head, but the teller ducked and the bullet hit the wall behind the teller. The other two shots were random, LaVelle said.

Police arrested Lamont Laprade, 32, of Huntington, W. Va., Friday and David Louis Mathis, 45, Crafton, Pa. on Saturday (Life is a Highway Jan. 11). Mathis was arrested at a local mall. He allegedly coerced people to drive him to the mall, where he purchased clothing to replace the wet clothes he wore, according to PCUA. He had spent most of the night and morning outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jan. 9).

The gunman, who spent about seven minutes in the building, ordered two tellers--including the one who had been shot--to take him to the vault and open it. They were too nervous to do so. The robber managed to get cash from a teller window.

Five other employees hid in LaVelle's office and she barricaded her door with a chair.

"We were scared," she told PCUA. "I thought any moment he would discover other people were in the building."

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