Trooper commits suicide

[Sam]

This is a horrible story, I can't comment on it now.
NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) - A town still trying to cope with a deadly bank holdup got more sad news when a state trooper used his service revolver to kill himself, apparently guilt-ridden that he failed to catch one of the alleged robbers a week before.

Nebraska State Patrol trooper Mark Zach had stopped one of the robbery suspects for a traffic violation, but failed to detect that the gun the man was carrying was allegedly stolen.

Although the gun was confiscated by authorities, Zach apparently felt responsible for not getting the suspect behind bars on a more serious stolen weapons charge

"Trooper Zach could not accept that," said Col. Tom Nesbitt, Nebraska State Patrol superintendent. "He took his responsibility very, very seriously."

The suicide came hours after police laid out their case against the four suspects in Thursday's robbery at the U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk in which five people were murdered.

The three alleged gunmen were caught Thursday in a stolen pickup after stopping at a gas station 75 miles away. A fourth suspect was later arrested. All are from the area.

The holdup men walked in with guns blazing, and within 40 seconds all five victims had been shot in the head, Capt. Steve Hecker testified in dramatic detail at a bond hearing for the suspects.

Hecker said one suspect was asked why they opened fire at the bank, and the man would say only, "It went to hell in the bank." All four men were denied bail.

Hecker said the suspects planned to steal the vehicle of one of the victims. Instead, police say, the three gunmen ran away and stole a car at gunpoint from an elderly couple after breaking into their home. The fourth suspect, the alleged scout, apparently had fled.

About 50 people

[Snoopy1]

This is so sad. He made one stupid little mistake, and I can understand how he would feel bad, but I read somewhere that the gun was confiscated before the holdup. We will never know what would have happened is this one participant had been arrested before the holdup. The others might have gone ahead with the plan without him. The trooper was not responsible for the death of the people during the holdup.

Life is full of "what if" and "if only I had" but we can't go back and undo whatever we did wrong. He took devotion to duty much too far and probably never thought of what this would do to his family, a widow with six children to raise alone. I feel so sorry for all of them.

[ 09-29-2002, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: Snoopy1 ]

[jellybean40]

I saw it on the news and felt horrible. i do wonder if something else was going on in his life. i cant imagine he would leave his wife and 6 kids like this. maybe no one will ever really know.

[kirch]

Not taking anything away from the tragedy of the situation, but it seems to me there must have been something else in the guy's life that led up to this. I've got the feeling that this simple error was just the final straw.