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News :: Crime & Police : Iraq |
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Soldier Returns From Iraq, Robs Keokuk Bank |
Current rating: 0 |
by AP
(No verified email address) |
15 Apr 2004
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One way to avoid being returned to the Middle East again... |
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - A Fort Campbell, Ky., soldier who police say robbed a bank and then surrendered just wanted to go to jail, Keokuk police said.
"He told us he couldn't take it any more," police Capt. Kevin Church said. "The robbery wasn't for financial reasons. He wasn't doing it because he needed the money, and we know he didn't want to hurt anybody. He wanted to be in a cell."
Master Sgt. Kenneth Lee Schweitzer, 38, of Louisville, Ky., walked into the Keokuk Savings Bank in southeast Iowa about 3 p.m. Tuesday, fired a large caliber handgun into the air and demanded cash, police said.
Schweitzer, a member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, left the bank, climbed into his pickup truck and drove to the police department, where he turned himself in.
"He also said the exact reason for robbing the bank was personal," Church added. "He said, 'The only thing I can live in is an 8-by-8 cell.' He realized he was going to jail and he's prepared to do so."
Church said Schweitzer chose the bank because it was the first one-story bank he had come across.
"When he made up his mind to do a bank, it was preferably a single story because he knew he was going to fire shots in the air and didn't want to hurt anybody," Church said.
When Schweitzer turned himself in, he left the handgun in his truck. He told investigators he did that so police wouldn't shoot at him and so he wouldn't have to return fire, Church said. He said the gun was not issued by the Army.
Schweitzer, who recently returned from Iraq, left Fort Campbell on Tuesday morning, about eight hours before he walked into the bank.
Church said Schweitzer's wife was interviewed by Army investigators. She knew he had left and was trying to find him, Church said.
Schweitzer has no known ties to Iowa. He was being held Thursday under $200,000 bond at the Lee County jail.
He was assigned to the Inspector General's department and was one of 20,000 soldiers shipped to Kuwait in February 2003, said Lt. Col. Trey Cate, public affairs officer for the 101st Airborne.
In March 2003, the 101st was across the border in Iraq where they served for one year.
"Our main mission was to provide a secure environment to facilitate the rebuilding of the central government services," Cate said. "We lost 58 soldiers in one year."
All 58 had been based at Fort Campbell. Schweitzer's status will be determined after the Army confers with local authorities and the FBI, Cate said.
A decision on who will handle the case could be made within a week.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Re: Soldier Returns From Iraq, Robs Keokuk Bank |
by Muck Raker
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Apr 2004
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Are they sure the soldier's name wasn't Jack Ryan? Oh, yeah, ol' Jack was in the Marines. Semper Phi! |
