FBI questions 'associate' of pizza man
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Brian Douglas Wells just before he was killed by a bomb August 28.
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Local police and the FBI uncover more clues about the man and the weapons in the bizarre pizza delivery bank bomber case. CNN's Mike Brooks reports (September 5)
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ERIE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The FBI questioned a man Friday in its investigation of the bizarre case of a pizza deliveryman who was killed by a bomb he said was locked around his neck to force him to rob a bank.
The development came as agents also searched a cinder-block garage belonging to the man's stepfather. The stepfather, Willie Feliciano, told CNN's Mike Brooks that his stepson was "an associate" of the pizza deliveryman, Brian Douglas Wells.
Police said Wells, 46, robbed a bank August 28 while wearing a bomb locked to his neck by a homemade metal collar.
FBI Special Agent Ken McCabe said Thursday that federal, state and local investigators are trying to determine whether Wells was forced to rob the bank, as he said, or whether he planned the robbery himself or with an accomplice.
The Erie Police bomb squad vehicle and an FBI evidence response van were at the private garage while special agents and technicians with the FBI explosives lab searched the structure.
Since the incident, authorities have searched for materials consistent with the unique metal collar.
After the robbery, Pennsylvania State Police stopped Wells, handcuffed him and sat him down on the ground, safely away from others. Police then called a bomb squad, but the device exploded, killing Wells, before bomb technicians arrived.
Before the blast, Wells told police he had been forced to rob the bank and asked police to help him remove the bomb.
Wells carried a note for bank employees during the robbery and another that included instructions for him, police said. Both notes are being examined for any fingerprints, handwriting, hair or fiber evidence, and the FBI has said investigators have not eliminated the possibility that Wells wrote the notes himself.
Earlier this week, the FBI said a weapon shaped like a cane was found in the deliveryman's car. Investigators will likely examine the weapon to try to determine if it was manufactured with the same tools or in the same shop as the bomb collar.
