KEARNEY, Neb. - A heroine is what Kearney Police Chief Dan Lynch is calling the female Wells Fargo Bank employee who first dialed 911 Wednesday.
“She's the sharpest, calmest, most organized lady that I can think of,” Lynch said Thursday from his office. “She kept it together. She helped us get information in and out. She initially relayed for him. ... I'm very impressed with her. She's very solid.”
At 10:57 a.m. Wednesday, the woman, whom Lynch wouldn't identify, called 911 to report a man had entered the bank wearing a trench coat and carrying a loaded sawed-off shotgun. The bank is 2 1/2 blocks west of the Kearney/Buffalo Counter Law Enforcement Center.
During a conversation with the 911 center, the armed man relayed to dispatchers he wanted television station NTV at the scene. A day earlier, the Kearney Police Department received an e-mail about Jonathon C. Buckley, 22, of Minden who had been fired from the NTV Feb. 3. He had worked there as a master control operator for nearly two years.
The e-mail said Buckley was irate about being fired.
“We just kind of put two and two together and kind of guessed that's probably who it would be,” Lynch said of the bank suspect.
Inside the bank, Buckley threatened employees and brandished the shotgun to move people and to get their compliance.
Mandy Dubas, 24, was minutes from going to lunch as a teller on the main floor of the bank.
At 11 a.m. Dubas called her boyfriend, Andrew Grazier. to say there was a man at the bank with a shotgun and that she would call Grazier back. During the two-hour standoff, Grazier waited for news across the street near the Kearney Public Library and in the Platte Valley State Bank parking lot.
“She was very scared,” Grazier said.
At 11:15 a.m. police negotiators tried to make phone contact with Buckley, but he refused to take their calls. By that time, more than two dozen onlookers and picture-takers had gathered outside the library on Central Avenue and 21st Street watching police maneuver around the building and the police department's Emergency Services Unit team take their positions.
It was a scene many bystanders couldn't believe they were watching.
“It just makes people remember that it could happen anywhere, right?” one unidentified onlooker said.
As the situation progressed, several businesses surrounding Wells Fargo were on lockdown, as was Central Elementary School five blocks away, while other businesses voluntarily evacuated.
About 11:30 a.m., several bank employees and customers began leaving the west bank doors one by one with their hands in the air, while others were evacuated out the east bank doors and through the alley.
It's believed Buckley stayed on the main floor of the bank the entire time.
“I don't think he was aware of everybody that was on the second floor and everybody that might have been in the basement at one time,” Lynch said.
Many friends and family of the hostages arrived at the scene. Many pressed their faces to the windows inside Platte Valley State Bank where they waited to be reunited with their loved ones.
Police established negotiation by phone with Buckley from their command post in the TierOne Bank parking lot directly across the street from Wells Fargo. Within 45 minutes, more than 20 hostages had been released and shuttled inside a back door at TierOne where police questioned them.
Friends and family called people on their cell phones as their loved ones emerged from the bank.
“There she is. She's out,” the friend of one hostage was overheard saying.
In addition to KPD, officers from the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office, the Nebraska State Patrol and the FBI were on scene. Three sniper teams of two officers each were perched on top of three rooftops surrounding the bank.
About 1:34 p.m., Buckley, wearing blue pants, a dark green tank top and red suspenders, walked out of the bank unarmed with his hands in the air holding a clear plastic bag of banded money. Members of the ESU team ordered Buckley to the ground, and he was taken into custody.
Buckley was interviewed at the Law Enforcement Center and then taken to the Buffalo County Detention Center. He was arrested on suspicion of felony armed robbery, felony terroristic threats and using a firearm to commit a felony.
Buckley was scheduled to appear before a judge this afternoon.
The shotgun and a machete were recovered. Kearney County authorities served a search warrant on Buckley's apartment Wednesday afternoon.
Lynch said most of the hostages remained calm after they were released, although several others were also “extremely upset.” One elderly hostage was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital complaining of chest pains.
Her condition was unknown at press time.
“I was really impressed. The majority of them were pretty good,” Lynch said of hostages. “For the most part, most of these people were outstanding, top notch, had it together and were able to help us a great deal.”
Kearney County Sheriff Scott White said in the past his department hadn't had any negative contacts with Buckley. But White was aware Buckley had been fired. He said he had no reason to suspect Buckley might become violent.
White also said Buckley was known around town for his duct-taped truck, a Ford Ranger covered completely with colored duct tape.
Mike Gokie, owner of Daylight Donuts in Minden, said Buckley was also known for his unusual clothing.
Gokie said Buckley had often been seen around town wearing bedroom slippers and would wear only a tank top even when the weather was cold.
“He came in here occasionally. He was always nice, very mannerly. But - how can I say this tactfully - he was different,” Gokie said. “But he was always very nice; he never bothered me.
“He came in the day before yesterday, and I could tell he was frustrated and upset. He told me he had been fired, but I didn't ask why,” Gokie said.
World-Herald News Service reporter Betsy Friedrich contributed to this article.
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