A 54-year-old credit union employee is lucky to be alive today after a man attempted to rob a Fresno, Calif. branch of the $2.7 billion Educational Employees Credit Union Tuesday by taking her hostage while holding a large steak knife to her neck, Fresno Police said.
This is the third attempted credit union robbery/hostage incident within the last two months.
Jesse Anthony Flores, 32, was charged with attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, Fresno Police Lt. Joe Gomez said. Police declined to identify the victim. Flores robbed the same credit union branch on East Shaw Avenue in June 2011. He served a three-year sentence in a hospital prison and was released in 2015, police reported.
Wearing a red bandana and sunglasses, Flores walked up to the front doors at the East Shaw Avenue branch Tuesday morning as employees reported to work. The manager inside the branch keeps the front doors locked until employees give a thumb up signaling it’s safe to open the doors.
“The bank manager would not allow the female employees to enter the bank as long as the male suspect was standing near the entrance,” Lt. Shaw said.
As employees were trying to get Flores to leave, he grabbed one of the female employees.
“He held his arm around the victim and put a knife to her throat,” Lt. Shaw said. “He was demanding entry into the bank. The manager would not open the door and pressed the panic button.”
Employees called police at 8:24 a.m. Within three minutes, a motorcycle patrol officer arrived at the scene. While he was waiting for a backup officer to arrive, the officer observed the hostage situation and saw another female employee of the credit union talking to the suspect.
When the backup officer arrived, he commanded Flores to release the hostage. After releasing the hostage unharmed, Flores walked to the parking lot and threw away the large steak knife. One of the officers approached Flores at gunpoint and told him to get down on the ground, which he did.
After he was arrested, Flores admitted to police that he was planning to rob the credit union to get bail money for his girlfriend who was in prison. Now Flores is being held at the Fresno County Jail.
When contacted for a statement Wednesday, Educational Employees CU said it was unable to meet CU Times deadline.
