Hostage Killed in Louisiana Bank Standoff

A man who took hostages at a bank in rural Louisiana shot the two remaining hostages, killing one of them, before being shot and killed by police, authorities said. During negotiations with law enforcement yesterday, the suspect—identified as 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed—said he was going to kill the hostages, police said. State police then entered the building just before midnight. A police spokesman said Ahmed was a mentally unstable man who believed a device had been implanted in his brain; among his demands was that police remove the device. He had written a letter detailing how he planned to kill his victims.

"He was mad at people that he said were mean to him," said the spokesman. "He had voices in his head." The gunman initially took two women and a man captive about 12:30pm yesterday at the Tensas State Bank branch in St. Joseph. He later released one of the female hostages. Authorities were able to put Ahmed on the phone with a friend in Alaska during negotiations, and that was key in getting him to release the hostage. But police said the man grew increasingly erratic. There was no indication Ahmed had any history with the bank employees, and authorities did not know why he picked the bank. It sits across the street from a service station owned by Ahmed's family. The surviving hostage is in critical condition. (More hostage stories.)