I just heard this on the radio. A car chase with shots fired right through my neighborhood.According to police radio traffic, the suspect's car ended up in a ditch after leading police along Arcadian Avenue, Perkins, Broadway and Highway 164. Traffic along the bypass on Waukesha's southeast side had come to a standstill.I hope the root beer stand is okay.
A police officer was heard to say over the radio, "Waukesha police, you are under arrest. Do not reach for the handgun or you will be shot."
Update! Here's the latest from the Journal Sentinel:
Police Lt. William H. Graham said the incident began at 9:17 a.m. at Chase Bank in downtown Waukesha when a man entered the bank wearing a wig and displayed a gun while demanding money. His car was spotted by a passing squad and the suspect fled when police tried to pull it over. During the pursuit, Graham said, the suspect and officers exchanged gunfire.Let me just add a couple of points here:
Jeff Hineman, a witness, lives in an apartment on Sunset Drive near Highway 164 and was crossing the street about 9:30 a.m. to buy a bottle of soda from a gas station when he saw a white convertible Mustang approach the intersection at about 80-90 mph with at least a half-dozen police vehicles in pursuit.
He said the Mustang swerved to avoid cross traffic, causing it to lose control and roll into a ditch, landing on its top. At that point, Hineman said, police surrounded the car and 15-20 gunshots were exchanged. Police backed off and put sharpshooters on the roof of a nearby bank and, after 15-20 minutes, talked one man out of the car, he said. The man was arrested without incident.
At about 10:15, Hineman said, officers approached the car, trailing behind an armored vehicle and set up behind bullet-proof shields and removed the second man from the car.
For the driver of the getaway car to decide on Arcadian as the route out of downtown, and then to turn right on Perkins, the cops must've been right on them, or they were completely lost.
As for the decision to rob a bank in downtown Waukesha, there's a legend (I don't know if it's true) that Waukesha's streets were originally layed out to keep bank robbers from escaping. It certainly seemed to work today.
That having been said, I'm glad that the Waukesha Police Department was able to catch these guys without anyone getting hurt (at least according to the reports we have).
Update 2! Turns out there is just one bank robber, and he is in custody. At 2:00pm I wandered out and took some photos (as close as I could get with a cheap digital camera). Hwy 164 was still shut down between Sunset and Racine Avenue. At the bank where the robbery took place, they have yellow tape surrounding a section of the neighboring parking lot. I followed the path the robber took back to my house (he literally drove one block from my house). Why he decided to turn on Perkins when he was so close to reaching 164 on Arcadian doesn't make sense, but then I'm sure he wasn't thinking straight at that point.
Okay, I admit it, I'm a geek, but how often does this stuff happen out here?
Update 3! 4/29 1:28am As if in answer to my questionWISN-TV reminds us that it was 12 years to the day since the Oswald shoot-out. Happily, nobody was hurt this time.
