The Trib Two-Times The Herald On Local Crimes

We noted that in the two weeks since we criticized the Bradenton Herald for including the Bayshore Gardens Parkway neighborhood in the 9 and 1/2 square mile crime box devised by Sheriff Charlie Wells that the paper's weekly crime statistics have shown nearly a 300 percent increase from about four crimes a week to 13 in the last Sunday paper.

Whether that's driven by the new ordinance intended to drive the homeless out of Bradenton's city limits or the paper's fear of a lawsuit, we don't know, but the fact of crime here in southwest Bradenton was sharply heightened when I got to the bank this afternoon and found it had just been robbed.

The Bank of America branch at Bayshore Gardens Parkway and 14th St./US 41 got hit in an incident that witnesses said had police cars "flying in from every direction." I asked a departing bank teller I know if it had been robbed, and she answered, simply, "Yes." The banks public area was closed down, but the drive-in windows continued to operate. When I asked the teller what happened, she responded, "We're not allowed to talk about it."

[Later in the day I saw other tellers, and they told me no one was hurt and no money was taken in the incident.]

[At 12:43am Satuyrday morning, I found a fullish story in the incident on the Trib Website, but there's still nothing on the Herald Website. See below.]
I called the Herald a minute or two after I reached the bank, but hours have passed since then and they still are leading their website with irrelevant stuff like "a new address" for New College.
However, the Herald told me that there had been a hostage incident this morning near there, but they apparently haven't gotten a story done at 5pm EST Friday, as I write this.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune, however, has a pretty full account of the hostage crisis:

September 01. 2006 4:13PM

Shot fired, but South Manatee stand-off ends without injury

STAFF REPORT

SOUTH MANATEE — A sheriff’s deputy who was part of a SWAT raid Friday at an apartment fired a shot at a suicidal man armed with a handgun, narrowly missing the man in his bedroom. The nearly five-hour standoff ended without injury, police said.

Authorities did not identify the 41-year-old man who called 911 about 8:50 a.m. telling a dispatcher that he wanted a paramedic to respond to his apartment to pick up his body.

The sheriff’s SWAT team raided the apartment about 1:20 p.m. using a smoke device to disorient the man, who was found with a gun. A single shot was fired at the man, but the bullet missed.

The man, who lived in the 1000 block of Longfellow Court, off Whitfield Avenue, refused to come out of his residence, sheriff’s officials said. A lieutenant, William Evers, communicated with the man via cell phone.

Sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow, explaining the missed shot, said it was dark in the residence and there was smoke lingering in rooms.

“It was pretty close to hitting him,” Bristow said. Bristow said the shooting is under routine administrative review. The man was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation.

Here's the Trib's story on the bank robbery from its Website:

September 01, 2006 5:48PM

Bradenton bank robber haggles with clerk just a little too long

STAFF REPORT

BRADENTON — A would-be bank robber never got a chance to execute his getaway plan, if indeed he had one.

Sheriff’s deputies rolled up up to the bank Friday afternoon as the man was apparently haggling with a clerk over the denomination of bills he was about to steal.

Sheriff’s officials said Bradenton resident William R. Dawson, 26, tried to rob the Bank of America in the 6100 block of 14th Street West about 1:50 p.m.

When deputies arrived, Dawson was still in the bank, Manatee County sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow said. Dawson was arrested on a robbery charge and taken to the county jail.

Witnesses told deputies that Dawson walked into the bank and demanded money. He told the teller he was armed, but authorities did not find a weapon.

“We certainly have our fair share of arrests, but not that often while the person is till trying to rob the bank,” Bristow said.

Bristow attributed the arrest to combination of a fast law enforcement response to the bank and a criminal who wasn’t paying attention.

“He had conversation going with the teller,” Bristow said. “He was asking for hundreds. She said we don’t have any. Then he asked for fifties. He kept going.”

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