Louisiana 12-hour Standoff Ends With Gunman, Hostage Dead

A gunman inside a Louisiana bank shot his two remaining hostages, killing one of them, as police stormed the facility and killed the suspect after a 12-hour standoff, authorities said today.
The incident ended shortly after midnight local time in St. Joseph, La., when state police sent a SWAT team into the bank, police said. The alleged gunman, identified as Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, 20, shot the two hostages before he was killed by police, Louisiana State Trooper Albert Paxton confirmed to ABC News early this morning.
The two hostages, one male and one female, were taken to area hospitals, where one later died and the other is listed in critical condition, police said.

A third hostage that escaped earlier in the standoff was uninjured, according to police.
All three hostages were employees at the Tensas State Bank, Paxton said. Their identities have not been released. It’s unclear whether the suspect, whom police described as paranoid schizophrenic, had any connection to the bank or the hostages.
The tense standoff began around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday when Ahmed, who is from California, took three people hostage inside the bank, police said.
Ahmed’s relatives arrived at the scene, helping FBI officials and state negotiators, Paxton said.

“They’ve been on scene for awhile and they’ve been very cooperative,” Paxton told ABC News Radio during the standoff.
Louisiana State police say the suspect had some kind of mental illness because in listing his demands during the standoff, Ahmed said there was a device in his head that was causing him to hear voices and he wanted police to make it stop.
Ahmed had a duffel bag that contained items with which he was going to torture the hostages, Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson told The Associated Press.
“His intent was to inflict pain and kill these individuals,” Edmonson said.
Areas closest to the bank were evacuated as a “precaution” in fear of explosives, state trooper Paxton said.
SOURCE: abcnews