News

Timeline of the Wellsville robbery

Posted November 20, 2007 10:00 pm

John Anderson

According to witnesses and police, here is the timeline as police from four agencies made an arrest in 51 minutes from the time a gun was pulled in the Rite Aid pharmacy.

Two police officers, Allegany County Sheriff Deputy Kevin Ross and Bolivar Police Chief Rick Whitney, were taken to Jones Memorial Hospital and were treated and released for minor injuries. The suspect, Gene Fanton, 52, of Belmont, was taken to Jones Memorial with a knee injury, back injury and a mark to the head. He was later charged by Wellsville Village Police with first-degree attempted murder, a Class A-1 felony, felony armed robbery, first-degree felony reckless endangerment and felony grand larceny.

9:15 a.m. - Gene Fanton is seen getting out of his tan Saturn he parked between Movie Gallery and Dollar General in the front of the building. Wearing a hard hat and a pouch that may have been the gun but looked like a device to read a meter, he walked behind the Rite Aid to the right and went down the side of the building near the tree-line and into the pharmacy.

9:20 a.m. - Fanton allegedly demands hydrocodone (another form of vicodin) at the pharmacy. Retired Allegany County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Sobeck, who was mulling around and waiting 15 minutes for his prescription, notices Fanton demanding something and ushered employees out of the store and left as well.

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9:23 a.m. - Sobeck leaves the store, notices Wellsville Village Police Officer Mark Bierman has someone pulled over on State Route 417 near the Rite Aid and flags him down. Bierman had just cleared his vehicle stop and was on the radio with dispatch at the police station. Bierman calls on the radio to the station for back up for a robbery at the former Eckerd's.

9:24 a.m. - Fanton leaves the pharmacy and goes to the back door. He can't get the door open. An employee, noticing the hard hat, thought Fanton was an employee doing electrical or construction work. The employee showed him he had to push up on a lever to get the back door open, not realizing an armed robbery had just taken place.

9:25:58 - A 911 call comes in to the station that the robbery took place.

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9:33 a.m. - Fanton was spotted running behind the movie gallery. Sobeck, who was instructed by Bierman to go around one side of the building - armed with a radio - allegedly has a gun pulled on him. State University of New York Officer Donald Kane, who works at the Alfred State College Wellsville campus, shows up and chases Fanton around the back of the building along with a uniformed state police trooper from the Amity barracks.

9:34 a.m. - Fanton runs past Sobeck and gets inside a Champion Rent-to-Own van. Within seconds, he is cornered.

9:45 a.m. - Off-duty Wellsville Police Department Lieutenant Tim Walsh points a gun right toward Fanton, who is hiding in the van and gets the employees of Champion out the side door. Walsh is covered by another Wellsville officers in the front of the store and to his left, a trooper and Wellsville Police Chief Steven Mattison, crouching behind a dumpster.

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9:55 a.m. - Negotiations begin, as Fanton is asked to put his weapon down and get out of the van. He does not

9:58 a.m. - Fanton is asked again to get out by negotiators. He goes to the far back of the van, where there are no side windows, then back to the front seat and sits up. Suddenly, the van goes forward through the loose gravel, past the dumpster and around the back of the building where there is an employee parking lot.

9:59 a.m. - A dumpster for the Movie Gallery is no longer out back, which allows Fanton to circle back around and come back out the side of the building as police cars came through the other side of the store.

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10 a.m. - Fanton strikes Kane's SUNY Alfred Police vehicle, allegedly opens fire on Allegany County Undersheriff William Goetschius, strikes Goetschius' car and stops for a second. He then takes a hard right through the parking lot and eight shots are fired by Bierman, Allegany County Sheriff Deputy Dan Hanchett and Bolivar Police Chief Rick Whitney. One shot goes through the door, Goetschius said, and was stopped by the magnetic part of the door speaker instead of hitting Fanton.

10:01 a.m. - Fanton leaves the parking lot and a high-speed pursuit begins, going west on State Route 417.

10:04 a.m. - Allegany County Sheriff William Tompkins bumps the van several times from behind, but Fanton keeps control. He attempts to take a left onto Miller Road and go up toward the airport or straight to the woods, but Tompkins sends him straight into the parking lot of the former Home and Hearth building. Fanton tries to go back toward the village

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10:05 a.m. - The chase ends. Allegany County Sheriff Deputy Kevin Ross, driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, strikes Fanton near head-on. Whitney, Tompkins and Hanchett all strike the vehicle as well.

10:06 a.m. - Trooper Dan Brown, part of a SWAT team, has a gun to Fanton's head as he comes to. Goetschius said he was dazed from the crash. Two troopers pull a bent door open and take Fanton out of the vehicle. Goetschius said Fanton struggles to the end as he is being cuffed.

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