Two dead after Oklahoma bank robbery

EUFAULA, Okla. – A bank president was fatally shot during a robbery Thursday in eastern Oklahoma, officials said, and one of two suspects in the bank robbery was killed after an ensuing car chase.

FBI spokesman Terry Weber told the Oklahoman that a bank employee was killed during the robbery about 10 a.m. at the Bank of Eufaula, about 125 miles east of Oklahoma City. The state banking commissioner, Mick Thompson, confirmed that the bank’s CEO and president, Randy Peterson, was killed.

Weber said both suspects were armed when they entered the bank and that they later led police on a car chase through McIntosh County.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. John Vincent said a state trooper spotted and tried to pull over a vehicle on Highway 69 that was believed to be driven by a bank robbery suspect.

“There was a short pursuit before the trooper initiated a tactical procedure to stop the vehicle,” Vincent said.

He said the trooper along with officers from two other law enforcement agencies were involved in a short exchange of gunfire with the suspect, who Vincent said was a black male dressed as a woman. Vincent said he did not know if the suspect was wearing a dress specifically.

He said one other person, a woman who was in the car with the suspect, was injured during the exchange with officers and taken to a Tulsa hospital. Vincent said he did not know her relationship to the robbery or the nature and extent of her injuries.

“I’m unsure how she ended up in the vehicle,” he said.

Weber, the FBI spokesman, did not immediately return phone calls to The Associated Press, but told the Oklahoman that a second robbery suspect was shot and taken to a hospital.

Vincent said no law enforcement officers were injured during the pursuit or shootout with the suspect.