1 arrested in North End robbery
Failed attempt on armored car leads to standoff in Malden; another held
MALDEN -- A botched robbery of an armored car at high noon yesterday in Boston's North End ended with dozens of FBI agents and heavily armed State Police troopers surrounding a three-decker in Malden, where they arrested at least one man, but another suspect apparently escaped, the head of the Boston FBI office said last night.
''He might have slipped away," said Kenneth Kaiser, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston. SWAT team officers entered the house at about 6 p.m., but no one was inside.
The failed robbery began across from the Citizens Bank on Hanover Street when three armed men parked a silver Dodge Caravan and approached a Loomis Fargo armored car with ''long weapons," witnesses and officials said.
The men apparently forced one of the armored car's guards to lie in the street, but as they tried to rob the truck, something spooked them, a law enforcement official and witnesses said. One of the men dropped his weapon, which witnesses said looked like an AK-47 assault rifle, and the three quickly fled in the minivan.
''As I was about to go by the armored car, I noticed the doors were wide open," said a 58-year-old witness from the North End who requested anonymity. ''I saw the guard laying on the ground looking up. Something had fallen on the street that appeared to be a gun."
A man and his grandson were sitting in their car on Hanover Street when the robbery began. ''I looked at my grandson and said something is happening," said the grandfather, who would not give his name. ''I think it's a robbery."
The men then drove to Cooper Street in the North End, where they apparently ditched the minivan and switched to one of several getaway cars they used before police tracked them to 311 Pearl St. in Malden, witnesses and authorities said.
Federal officials said they believed the suspects lived at the Pearl Street address, which was swarmed by police officers.
Paula Rice, who owns the beige three-decker, said she could not imagine the three Charlestown natives who rent the two top floors of her home are armed robbers.
''They're polite, nice," Rice said of the men. ''The door was always unlocked upstairs. I swear to God, whoever robbed the bank doesn't live there."
But FBI officials were still camped in front of the Pearl Street home late last night, long after the last news truck pulled away and the street reopened to traffic.
In the early stages of the manhunt, FBI agents, state troopers, and local police acted quickly and cleared out the area, evacuating residents from Pearl Street, closing several Orange Line stations north of Boston, and locking down the nearby Beebe School.
At about 2 p.m., police arrested one man outside the house. The man, who they did not identify, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon but had not been charged in the attempted robbery.
Police also detained another unidentified man, who faces charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. It was unclear last night where or when they detained the second suspect, who they said surrendered.
At a press conference last night, FBI officials said they believe at least one man may have escaped the Pearl Street house while they arrested the man on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
Officials were talking to the man on the phone, which they apparently thought was being used from inside the home. It turned out, Kaiser said, that he was talking on a cellphone and could have been anywhere.
''We saw several people go into the house, and we believed he was still in there," Kaiser said. ''However, when we arrested the one person . . . there was a moment in time where we didn't have our eye on the house, and he might have slipped away." Police believe he is armed and dangerous.
One woman on Pearl Street was pulled out of her car on her way to work as the hunt for the suspects intensified.
''My husband was driving me to work, and [a police officer] said we need to evacuate the car and pull over," said Fatima Kouskous, who lives on Pearl Street and wasn't given a chance to turn off her car. ''He said, 'No questions.' "
Outside the Beebe School in Malden, parents stood worrying about the safety of their children. After some delay, students were released with helicopters circling overhead.
''All my friends in my class went crazy," said sixth-grader Stephane Pierre, 11. ''We didn't know what to do, so we kept looking out the window. Our teachers told us to be calm."
Teachers tried to keep students occupied by playing games.
''It feels so scary," said Juan Chen, 42, who has two daughters in the school. ''I worry about anything happening to my daughters. My kid tried to explain to me over the phone that there was a robber near the school, but I didn't understand why the school would keep them so late."
Nearby, at the Malden Center MBTA station, Dianne Gorman, 44, of Malden, said she thought the robbery was ''being blown out of proportion."
Susan d'Entremont, the mother of another student, said she was concerned about her son. ''It was just an inconvenience," she said. ''They didn't tell us anything until right before we would get off."
Globe correspondent April Simpson contributed to this report. 