CU Hostages Released / Robbery Statistics Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 1:39 PM

As reported by various new outlets today, 11 hostages held at gunpoint were freed from a robbery attempt this morning at Community First CU in Jacksonville, FL.

The Jacksonville sheriff's office said that the hostages were held as part of the robbery for about two hours. A 911 call reporting a bank robbery came in at 9:06 a.m. this morning. A short time later, another call indicated that someone may have been shot, but the sheriff's office later reported that claim as being false.  SWAT team members and police negotiators were called in.  Two people hiding inside the bank, unknown to the hostage taker, tried to run from bank, thereby distracting the hostage taker and providing the SWAT team the opportunity to storm the credit union, placing themselves between the hostage taker and the hostages.  The suspect then surrendered.

Police aren't sure why the suspect took hostages at the credit union but say he made several requests over the course of the incident, including asking family members to arrive on scene.

The 911 call was made by a member in the credit union's drive-thru seeing several tellers walking through the building with their hands up. The credit union hostage situation included 12 members and 44 CU employees.

Click on the picture to view the video.

FBI Bank Robbery Statistics:

• According to the FBI, in 2015 there was 56 separate hostage situations in United States financial institutions.
   
• In terms of fatalities, 9 people in financial institution hostage situations were killed in 2015.  In 8 of the cases, the perpetrator died. In one instance a bank customer was killed.
• During the 56 hostage situations, 10 customers, 35 employees and 9 bank robbers were injured.
• In all in 2015, there were 4,091 bank robberies, with violence related to only 3% of them.
• The most common day for bank robberies is Friday, followed by Wednesday and then Thursday. The most common time for bank robberies is right at opening. Last year 1,042 robberies occurred between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 933 robberies occurred between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• In most cases a demand note is used, followed by cases where robbers demanded money and threatened others with weapons.
• According to statistics, an explosive device was threatened in 108 different cases.