Man quizzed about deadly armored-truck heist

updated 12:48 a.m. ET Oct. 6, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - Investigators searching for a robber who fatally shot two armored car guards servicing an ATM brought in a man for questioning Friday, police said.

The suspect was arrested in northeast Philadelphia on a warrant in an unrelated case, but was being questioned about the robbery, Sgt. Anthony McFadden said.

The man was expected to be charged in connection with the robbery and slaying, police said late Friday. They declined to release his name.

The robber approached the armored car from behind Thursday morning outside a bank in northeast Philadelphia. He shot one guard in the chest, then went around the vehicle and shot the second guard as he tried to unholster his gun, police said. He shot toward a third guard inside the armored car, picked up a bag of deposits and fled.

Police and the FBI have been fielding tips about the suspect, described as a black man with a beard in his early to mid-20s, and his getaway car, a dark-colored 2007 or 2008 Acura TL Type-S.

Investigators on Friday still had not determined how much money the robber escaped with, but they believe he may have grabbed deposits — likely a mix of checks and cash.

Company consults victims' families
As authorities searched for the robber, officials with the company that employed the guards, Loomis, were in the Philadelphia area meeting with employees and the guards’ families. The company has about 190 total employees in the Philadelphia area, about half of them guards.

None of the three guards were wearing bulletproof vests. Loomis does not require guards to wear the vests, which cost $350 to $700, but it encourages their use, spokesman Mark Clark said. The company pays for part of the cost of the vests and offers interest-free loans to employees for the rest.

“One of the things that we’re re-evaluating is the vest policy,” Clark said. “Our objective is we want people to wear them.”

Surveillance tape from the Wachovia bank’s security camera and another northeast Philadelphia business showed the robber getting out of his car and putting on gloves before killing William Widmaier, 65, and Joseph Alullo, 54, according to police.

Surveillance tape may yield clues
Police released cropped still frames from the bank surveillance tape that show a man wearing a yellow baseball cap and bright yellow or orange gloves pointing a handgun toward the front of the ATM.

Widmaier was a Philadelphia police officer from 1966 to 1989, while Alullo served on the police force from 1973 to 2000. They were assigned to the same district and became friends, police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.

Widmaier was shot once in the chest, and Alullo was shot three times in the chest and abdomen, police said.

The third guard was grazed by shattered glass as the robber tried to shoot through the armored car. That guard was treated at a hospital for lacerations and released.

Widmaier, married with adult children, was the union shop steward for the Pennsauken, N.J.-based division of Loomis, where the men worked. Alullo was married with three daughters.

A message left with a union official was not immediately returned Friday.

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