CHICAGO – Forensics experts searched a getaway car and an empty cash box found inside for fingerprints Wednesday as authorities tried to identify a gang of bank robbers involved in a deadly holdup.
A police and FBI manhunt was on for the three masked robbers, blamed for the shooting death of a teller at the small community bank and the wounding of a security guard and 73-year-old customer.
Their maroon getaway car was found abandoned several miles from the bank, said FBI special agent Tom Simon.
"Due to the violence of the bank robbery, there's a definite police force out looking for these robbers," FBI spokeswoman Cynthia Yates said Wednesday morning. "We're hoping that someone in the community heard something or knows something."
The holdup at the Illinois Service Federal Savings and Loan on Chicago's South Side began around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday with the robbers overpowering one security guard and leaping over a teller's counter.
A second security guard exchanged fire with the robbers -- it wasn't clear who fired first -- and a 23-year-old male teller was shot in the back, said Maria Maher, chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department.
The teller, Tramaine Gibson, died Tuesday afternoon. His father told reporters that his son was married with two children.
"Tramaine was the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back," his father, Verton Gibson, said.
The security guard who exchanged fire with the robbers was shot in the chest, and a 73-year-old female customer was injured, authorities said. Both were hospitalized in fair condition, said Advocate Christ Medical Center spokesman Mike Maggio.
At least one of the bank robbers also may have been shot in the exchange, Maher said.
The three suspects got away with a small amount of cash, Deputy Police Chief Mike Shields said.
Officials said Tuesday's holdup may be connected to a similar heist May 10 at a nearby bank.
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