Loomis security officer shot to death during New Orleans robbery
New Orleans LA May 31 2017 A security officer of an armored truck company was shot and killed during an armed robbery outside a Mid-City bank, according to New Orleans police and a bank official.
Ron Moreau, chief development officer for Campus Federal Credit Union, said he received a report that a Loomis armored truck employee was fatally wounded in a shooting outside a drive-thru ATM at the bank, 2200 Tulane Avenue.
The employee was rushed to University Medical Center for treatment of what NOPD said were multiple gunshot wounds.
“We’re very concerned about the family of the Loomis personnel who was shot,” Moreau said. “We’re keeping his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
A woman who identified herself only as “Easha” said she was sitting inside her SUV, parked almost directly across South Galvez Street from the scene, when she heard gunfire about 4:20 p.m.
“I started screaming,” Easha said. “I didn’t know if I should get out the car or stay in. I didn’t know if I was going to get shot or what.”
Easha said she counted at least six to seven gunshots.
“It was more than three or four,” she said. “But that s— scared the hell out of me.”
She said she saw two men running from the scene, one with a red bandana covering part of his face.
Several neighbors, who declined to give their names, said they were inside their homes when they heard about seven gunshots. They said when they looked outside, they saw a man who appeared to be an security guard holding a gun and yelling for help.
Police cordoned off nearly the entire block of South Galvez, between Tulane and Gravier Street. Yellow crime-scene tape also stretched across a cement driveway that connects the bank’s drive-thru lanes to Gravier Street.
About 10 investigators remained huddled beneath a series of covered drive-thru lanes near the armored truck, which still had its headlights on and caution lights blinking.
At least one other officer searched the grass behind a warehouse next to the drive-thru lanes. Several other officers soon joined that officer in looking behind the large warehouse.
Police put at least 10 neon-green evidence cones on South Galvez Street in front of the drive-thru lanes.
This is the second Loomis armored truck employee to be killed in the last three and a half years. On Dec. 18, 2013, 45-year-old Hector Trochez was ambushed by three masked men while he was unloading $265,000 from a Loomis truck at a Chase Bank at South Carrollton and South Claiborne avenues.
It was not immediately known whether that case was ever solved.
In February 2015, police potentially averted an attempted armed heist when officers arrested three men that Loomis guards spotted following them twice in one day. The suspects were stopped by 4th District officers, who found in their vehicle a loaded gun, three sets of gloves, a ski mask, bandana and knit cap. At least one of the three confessed the group had “an intent and plan to rob the armored vehicle,” according to the arrest report.
All three men pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy to armed robbery, among other charges, court records show.
NOLA
