Brian Easley was a homeless Marine Corp veteran who had served in Iraq. He became desperate after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs did not help him and headed into a Wells Fargo Bank in suburban Atlanta near Marietta, threatening to blow it up. He was later shot and killed by a police officer.

Man phones WSB-TV to say he is in a bank and has a bomb

It started on Friday morning when WSB-TV received a call from a man, saying he was inside a bank. He went on to talk to them for over 30 minutes, telling the station that he had a bomb and that he was holding two people hostage.

The caller then said it wasn’t his intention to hurt anyone, saying he was a veteran and the father of an eight-year-old girl. He went on to explain that he was unhappy with the treatment he was receiving from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The caller then went on to say he had a hotel room for that night, but the next day he would be out on the streets with no food or home. He said he didn’t have much money left, but that he didn’t want the bank’s money, he wanted his own, claiming that Veterans Affairs owed him money.

He at one stage put both the hostages on the phone to confirm they were fine. One of them said the man was being “very respectful” to them. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that both hostages were female employees of the bank.

One was the branch manager. However at one point WSB-TV’s video of the conversation, the man says the bomb he has in his possession that could “take out the room.”

The standoff at the bank went on for several hours

The standoff went on for several hours while Cobb County police sent heavily-armed officers to the scene. Police officers eventually breached the bank, when they presumably shot the man.

The two hostages were freed by driving a vehicle through the wall of the bank, creating a hole for them to escape.

Police bomb squad send in robot to collect a backpack from the bank

While not much information had been reported, Sgt.

Dana Pierce confirmed that the man had died in an “officer involved shooting.” A police bomb squad sent a robot into the building to pick up a backpack, in which the man had claimed to have an IED. Police are reportedly still examining the backpack to establish whether he did have explosives.

The man was later identified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as being Brian Easley, a transient veteran. Police searched his home, but found no explosives.

Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register said in a news conference that it is unfortunate when something of this nature happens. He said it is not something they wanted to happen but due to the fact that Easley had said he had explosives, it was important to take action to preserve life.
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