A gunman has taken three hostages at a northeastern Louisiana bank, authorities said Tuesday afternoon. The Tensas Parish Sheriffs Office told NBC News the individuals are being held at the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, La., which is near border with Mississippi. The three hostages are believed to be bank employees and it is unclear whether any customers were present when the suspect entered. The man was armed with an automatic weapon, Louisiana State Police told the Associated Press. Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson told the AP that a state police negotiator was on the scene and the FBI is on the way.A gunman took three hostages inside a northeast Louisiana bank Tuesday afternoon, the state police reported. Col. Mike Edmonson, who heads the state police, told the Associated Press that the hostages apparently are employees of the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, La. It was not immediately reported whether customers were inside at the time. The suspect reportedly was armed with some type of automatic weapon, AP added. The FBI and a SWAT team are on the scene, and a state police hostage negotiator was talking to the gunman, KARD-TV reported. Tensas Parish Sheriffs Office Chief Civil Deputy Neeci Gregory toldThe News Star that we dont know if the suspect was trying to commit a robbery. The bank specializes in commercial lending. Authorities have blocked Highway 128, the main road that runs through the town of about 1,100 people southeast of Monroe.Pls Subscribe and Enjoy breaking news caught on tape daily La. Bank Gunman, One Hostage Killed ST. JOSEPH, La. — A man whose family owns a store across the street from a bank branch in rural Louisiana took three bank employees hostage Tuesday, and authorities talking with all four have no reason to believe any captive has been hurt, police said. The man — a U.S. citizen and local resident — has been calm and has made some demands, Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson said Tuesday evening. He would not describe the demands or further identify the gunman. Were still working with him to determine exactly what his intent is, Edmonson said. The banks employees are two women tellers and a man, said Mayor Edward Brown. The gunman, carrying at least a handgun, took them captive about 12:30 p.m. at the Tensas State Bank branch in St. Joseph, and the negotiator talked with him throughout the afternoon, said state police spokesman Trooper Albert Paxton. The red brick bank is just off Louisiana Highway 128, a rural stretch of road cutting through cornfields, and across the street from Trak convenience store, which the gunmans family owns, in St. Joseph, the seat of Tensas Parish. Edmonson warned that the standoff could last for some time. Our utmost concern right now more than anything else is the safety of those hostages, he said. More law enforcement people and equipment will be brought in. This is a fluid situation. Weve got to be prepared to act, Edmonson said. Brown said that, as a general rule, the towns most notable crimes are the occasional drug busts, and some residents are so frightened about whats happening that theyve left town. Its a quiet town. Very little crime. So this is amazing, Brown said. The town of 1,200 is near the Mississippi River, downriver from Vicksburg, Miss., in northeast Louisiana. Paxton said he didnt know whether the three hostages were bank employees or if any customers were inside. He said he believed that the Trak convenience store was evacuated, but there were few other occupied buildings within the perimeter that state police and the FBI set up. Richardo (rik-AHR-doh) Miles, a 25-year-old farmworker, said he lives about a half-mile from the bank. He sat on his bicycle at a roadblock near an abandoned hardware store about a quarter-mile away, watching dozens of first responders, including paramedics and heavily armed men in camouflage. A helicopter circled overhead in the overcast sky for a time as men, some carrying assault rifles, gathered in the street in front of the bank. Law enforcement trucks also hauled in construction lights, apparently to prepare in case the standoff lasted into the night. The sight of the state police bomb squad and SWAT team unnerved many people in the sleepy farm town, Miles said. Its kind of startling for the residents. Were not accustomed to this kind of activity, said Miles. Some people are pretty scared. Theyre nervous. Tensas Parish lies along the river, but St. Joseph is about a mile from the riverbank and about two miles from a 3,000-acre oxbow lake that long ago was one of the rivers bends. Nearly one-third of the parishs 5,000 residents live under the federal poverty level, according to U.S. Census figures. Farmland makes up more than 45 percent of the 600-square-mile parish, with most of it in cotton, feed grains, soybeans and wheat.Pls Subscribe and Enjoy breaking news caught on tape daily

• published: 26 Jan 2014
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