Romeoville bank hostages share harrowing ordeal: ‘He was literally crying out for help’

Roxana Boyden and Sandra Mendoza, together with one other lady, had been on the Fifth/Third financial institution doing work for the Romeoville Excessive Faculty Boosters. They had been almost completed, and Mendoza went again to her automotive to seize one thing.

“Once I walked in, I did not understand that this man walked behind me. The minute I walked into the workplace, I simply heard three pictures,” Mendoza stated.

READ MORE: Armed individual inside Romeoville financial institution fatally shot by SWAT

“It was like three loud pops,” recalled Boyden. “Pop, pop, pop.”

“He began yelling and all people was popping out. And he was throwing chairs on the door to barricade the doorway,” Mendoza stated.

“My mind was a flood of considering of my household. Survive; serious about surviving,” Boyden stated. “Praying. Praying loads.”

As Boyden prayed, Mendoza stated her adrenaline kicked in and she or he began doing what the person requested, from gathering chairs for the barricade to calling police. She stated he needed to talk to a selected officer; when that did not work, the suspect requested her to name 911 and informed her to inform the dispatcher they had been his hostages.

Then what occurred subsequent was surprising, for each ladies.

“He stored on telling us, ‘I am not right here to harm you. I am not right here to harm nobody. I am not right here for the cash. I am right here as a result of I’m uninterested in like– I’m uninterested in life,’” Mendoza stated.

The 2 ladies stated the suspect informed them his story, saying he was alone, estranged from household and had lived a tough life.

“He is like, I am performed. I’ve tried every thing and nothing’s have labored. So that is the top for me,” Mendoza stated.

“I really feel that he was only a individual in a psychological well being disaster,” Boyden stated. “He was actually crying out for assist.”

And regardless of the worry because the suspect walked the foyer holding a gun, as seen in cellphone video from contained in the financial institution, the 2 hostages stated he went so far as to supply consolation to the ladies.

“Ma’am, cease crying OK,” the suspect is heard saying on the cellphone video. “You’ve gotten my phrase, you’ll stroll out, I promise you.”

“He informed us at one level, seize your telephone, name your loved ones and inform them that you’re going house tonight. You are not going to remain right here. I am not gonna kill you,” stated Mendoza.

And so for a few of the hostages, worry turned to compassion.

“It is unhappy for these of us that should expertise it on our facet,” Boyden stated. “But it surely’s additionally unhappy of, like, what introduced an individual to that time, to be so determined to behave out in that style?”

Romeoville police stated after the suspect spoke with a negotiator and a social employee, he launched the hostages. Then, moments later, “Because the suspect was starting to exit, a member of the Will County Sheriff’s Workplace SWAT staff fired one spherical, putting the suspect,” in line with the Will County Sheriff’s Workplace.

The suspect has not but been named. He died later at a close-by hospital.

Nobody else was injured, however the two ladies who spoke to us are nonetheless emotionally torn over the half hour they spent with the suspect.

“It is most likely the longest 30-ish minutes of my life,” Boyden stated. “However, you recognize, I am not gonna lie after I say that. I went into church at work right now and I lit a candle for him to say a prayer, as a result of it was, it is very unhappy.”

“In spite of everything this, I am a robust believer that we must always reside life to the fullest and love each other it doesn’t matter what,” Mendoza stated.