Robbery ends in shooting

Police said that just before noon, a man dressed in black and armed with a black handgun had just tried get some cash from a Wells Fargo teller at the intersection of Eastern and Tropicana avenues.

But, police said, the teller ducked behind a bandit barrier — a thick bullet resistant clear plastic wall that extends from the counter to the ceiling — and was shielded from the gunman. At that moment, a guard with Loomis Armored walked in.

The robber grabbed the guard and shot him twice, police said. The robber then ran west across Eastern Avenue, disappearing somewhere among the neighboring businesses and residential area.

The guard, whose name was withheld by authorities, was rushed to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. He was undergoing surgery at 3 p.m. and was in critical condition, Las Vegas police Lt. George Castro said.

Police wouldn’t say whether the robber got away with any money.

While detectives investigated the scene, 23-year-old Leslie Marroquin’s family stood vigil outside the bank waiting for her.

When Chris Marroquin, 22, first heard about the robbery, he thought his older sister, who works as a personal banker for Wells Fargo, was in a hostage situation.

He called their father, Carlos Marroquin, who feared the worst.

"I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, what if she was killed,’ " Carlos Marroquin said.

He left his job at Treasure Island and rushed to the strip mall where the bank is located. He soon learned his daughter, who also is a UNLV student, was fine.

"What a little nightmare," the relieved father said.

He spoke with his daughter while she waited to be interviewed by investigators. Leslie Marroquin was crying, but told her father not to worry, he said.

She told him she didn’t even know a robbery was happening until she heard the shots, he said.

Police described the gunman as a light-skinned black man, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, 30 to 35 years old, wearing a black jacket, a black long-sleeved shirt and a black flat cap. Police also said he may have been wearing a cell phone ear-piece and may be bald.

The same Wells Fargo was the target of a violent robbery nearly two years ago.

In August 2005, Jeremy Suggs robbed the bank, put a gun to the head of a 13-year-old boy and wounded a woman with a gunshot to her back. He was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison in March.

Wells Fargo is expected to offer a reward for information that leads to the arrest of Tuesday’s robber, police said.

Anyone with information about the case can call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555, police at 828-3591, or the FBI at 385-1281.