Deadly Bank Heist Hits Small S.C. Town

By JULIE HALENAR=
.c The Associated Press

GREER, S.C. (AP) - The killing of three people during a bank robbery brought an unwelcome taste of the outside world to this small community in an area called the South Carolina Upstate.

``It seems like in these times you never know what's going to happen,'' resident Homer Fowler, 73, said Saturday. ``We think where we live is an exceptional place to live, but bad things still happen.''

``That's big city news - it's not Greer,'' said Glenn Downey, a 44-year-old construction worker.

Neither city police nor State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart would comment Saturday on the progress of the investigation.

Police Chief Dean Crisp had said earlier that officers were looking for two people in a red sedan seen leaving the bank Friday afternoon. But authorities said investigators were uncertain even of the gender of the two robbers.

The robbery occurred at a branch of the Blue Ridge Savings Bank, located in a small trailer not far from Greer's biggest employer - BMW Manufacturing Corp.

[red]Authorities said there was no sign of a struggle. Crisp said money was taken, but the amount was not known.[/red]

The victims were killed with a large caliber handgun, authorities said. Crisp said another employee had stepped out before the robbery.

Workers at a nearby construction site saw two people drive away from the bank shortly before police arrived in response to a panic alert from inside the bank, Crisp said.

That alert was received about 15 minutes after David Holtzclaw left after stopping to deliver lunch to his mother, Sylvia, who was working alone at the bank.

Sylvia Holtzclaw wasn't supposed to be working Friday and had told a friend that morning she worried about working in the bank by herself. ``She frequently expressed concern for her safety,'' Robbie Gravley told the (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal.

Holtzclaw's younger son, Kevin, a firefighter, stopped by the bank later and saw the emergency, police and media vehicles. He had to identify his mother's body.

Also killed were two customers, James E. Barnes, a professor at the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg, and his wife, Margaret.

Police questioned customers and workers at Mutt's BBQ just down the road from the bank, said waitress Latasha Jones.

``We had cops come in here - it was scary,'' Jones said.

It was the deadliest U.S. bank robbery since Sept. 26, when three gunmen killed five people at a US Bank branch in Norfolk, Neb.


 
05/17/03 15:19 EDT
   

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Quoted:
I would have to say that university professors are not normally known to have CCWs or own guns. They are not called "liberal intelligista" for nothing.

Quoted:


Unfortunately, the stereotype is usually accurate.    Some of us don't fit the mold, though...

Quoted:
I know the professor wasn't carrying.  I just found-out that the two customers were good friends of mine.  I didn't recognize the names because I've always called them Maggie and Jim.  They are anti-gun, and I know they weren't carrying.  Maggie worked in Spartanburg in at office in a bad neighborhood just behind the main post office.  I had talked to her once about concealed carry, and I got a very negative reaction.  They also weren't the type to resist.  I'm shocked to say the least.z