Welcome to Arrest Stories. A North Carolina man has been federally charged after allegedly robbing a bank with explosive threats and then engaging in a shootout with police officers on December twenty-sixth. Here's what may have happened.
Willie Edward McGee Junior entered a First Citizens Bank in Zebulon, North Carolina on December twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-five. According to authorities, McGee handed a written note to a bank employee claiming he had an explosive device in his semi-truck parked outside. The note allegedly threatened that McGee would detonate C-four explosives if the teller didn't comply with his demands for money.
The bank teller gave McGee three thousand two hundred thirty-four dollars in cash. Surveillance footage captured McGee leaving the bank and getting into a white eighteen-wheeler vehicle before driving away from the scene.
Law enforcement officers responded to the bank robbery and began tracking McGee's location. Rocky Mount Police located the semi-truck in a Hobby Lobby parking lot on Sutters Creek Boulevard in Rocky Mount, approximately forty minutes east of Zebulon.
Officers began surveilling the vehicle when McGee exited the cab of the semi-truck. According to police reports, McGee was armed with a Ruger AR five point five six rifle and began firing the weapon at the responding officers. The officers returned fire and struck McGee during the exchange.
Following the shootout, bomb technicians from the FBI and SBI responded to the scene to search McGee's vehicle for the alleged explosive devices. The bomb squad conducted a thorough search but found no explosives in the semi-truck.
A federal prosecutor stated, "As alleged, this defendant didn't just rob a bank, he threatened innocent civilians with explosives and then opened fire on police officers. That is not desperation, it is domestic terror."
Another official commented, "When bad guys shoot at our law enforcement partners, we will aggressively pursue federal charges against them. We intend to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt that this man robbed a bank and shot his gun during and related to that crime of violence."
Authorities confirmed that no law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during McGee's arrest.
McGee has been federally charged with bank robbery and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.