PITTSBORO — Unredacted portions of newly-released 911 tapes from the morning of September 12 provide more details about the hostage standoff at the State Employees Credit Union in Pittsboro.
The incident began in the late morning when a man with a gun entered the SECU, firing shots into the facility and ordering all those inside except for the bank’s manager to leave. A multiple law enforcement department response rushed to the scene, securing the area and shutting down traffic on East Street in Pittsboro.
After tense negotiations, the suspect, Kevin Laliberte, 54, of Pittsboro, first released the bank manager and later surrendered himself to N.C. State Highway Patrol Trooper Rodney N. Cook. Laliberte was charged with one count of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, 15 counts of discharging a weapon into occupied property and one count of injury to real property and was placed in the custody of the Chatham County Detention Center. While there, he was charged additionally with unauthorized use of motor vehicle in an unrelated incident.
Pittsboro Police Chief Percy Crutchfield told the News + Record the department is still investigating Laliberte’s motive — “Some of it is mystery, some of it is speculation,” he said — but the criminal case will either be handled by the state or federal courts. Crutchfield said the Pittsboro PD met with representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s office Tuesday morning and are waiting on the federal attorneys’ decision.
Two bank employees made separate calls to Chatham County’s 911 center immediately after the perpetrator — who identified himself as Laliberte — entered the bank.
“Someone is inside the credit union shooting,” one female caller — from here on, Caller No. 1 — told a 911 dispatcher. “He told us to get out. He’s in there with the branch manager.”
According to Caller No. 1 and Caller No. 2, also a female, a short white male either bald or balding entered the bank and asked to speak to a manager.
“He walked in, said he wanted to see a manager,” Caller No. 1 said. “(A bank employee) asked what it was regarding and he pulled out two guns and said, ‘This is what it’s regarding. Everybody get out. Except for the manager.’”
Both callers indicated that they thought the suspect’s weapons were not real guns. They looked like handguns, they said, but sounded different.
“He did shoot off a gun,” Caller No. 2 said. “It sounded more like a pop gun, but I don’t know what kind of gun it is.”
Caller No. 1 added that the weapon “sounded almost like a cap gun.”
The two callers were part of two separate groups calling from outside the building. Caller No. 1 said she was part of a three-person group standing near the bank’s drive-through lane, while Caller No. 2 indicated she was in a group of eight or nine people outside the building in a different area.
Outside the bank, a third caller — a male — told a 911 dispatcher that he saw a couple running out of the bank.
“I got my gun out because when I saw them running,” he said — he had earlier referred to carrying a “45.” “I thought they were the people that were robbing the bank.”
But they were customers, he said, running from the scene.
A third, longer call — slightly more than 50 minutes — made from inside the SECU reveal a remarkably calm branch manager Chris Woodard continually reassuring Laliberte while waiting for Trooper Cook, whom Laliberte specifically requested, to arrive on the scene.
An obviously nervous Woodard begins his call by providing his address and phone number to the operator. Woodard then interrupts the operator to say: “I’ve got two guns pointed at me.”
Woodard tells the operator — with obvious stress in his voice — “we need to get Trooper R.N. Cook here.” When the operator asks why, Woodard says: “I’ve got an individual here, who’s obviously distraught, and we need to listen to what he’s saying.”
Woodard tells the operator that shots had been fired inside the building, but that at that point he and Laliberte are the only people inside the building. Woodard tells the operator that Laliberte possesses two handguns, both .32 automatics pistols, but stresses what Laliberte wants is to speak with Trooper Cook.
For the next 30 or so minutes, Woodard and the operator, who identifies herself as Heather, work to get information from a man who identified himself as Laliberte.
During multiple occasions in this recording, Woodard attempts to reassure Laliberte and calm him. “Look,” he said at one point, “we’ll get it taken care of.” At another point in the call, Woodard can be heard telling Laliberte, “Hey, look, Kevin, I don’t want you to hurt yourself either.” Woodard tells the operator that Laliberte is “being reasonable. He just wants to talk to Mr. Cook.” And at another time, Woodard says to Laliberte, “Take a deep breath, take a deep breath…I know you are; we’ll get you through it.”
Laliberte can apparently be heard on a couple of occasions crying.
At another point in the recording, Woodard asks the operator for her name. She tells him.
“Heather,” he says, “Kevin’s been straight up with me, I’ve been straight up with him, and I want you guys to be straight up with us.”
When asked why he requested Trooper Cook — who eventually arrived on the scene, but after a point in the recordings provided to the News + Record ended — specifically, Laliberte can be heard to say, “He’s the only one I’m turning myself over to. I’m not walking out of here alive without him.”
When Cook arrives, Laliberte tells Woodard — who relays the information to the operator — he’ll lay down and put his two guns away.
Laliberte appears to grow frustrated while waiting for Trooper Cook and can be heard re-emphasizing to Woodard that he’ll only talk — and surrender to — Cook; according to Woodard, Laliberte says he’s going to hill himself if he doesn’t turn himself in.
Not long after, Woodard encourages Laliberte again, asking him to calm down.
“Listen, man,” he says, “I’m in here with you. The last thing I want is for that damn gun to go off.”
Throughout the 50-minute 9-1-1 call, Woodard serves as a go-between for Laliberte and the operator. The operator asks Woodard to find out why Laliberte is asking for Cook, whom he calls “a fair trooper.” Laliberte says he just needs to “ask a question” then he will lay down his guns and surrender, but never tells Woodard or the operator why.
Numerous times, Woodard asks Laliberte to move a gun that he has pointed at his own head, while asking him not to hurt himself. At other points, Laliberte becomes highly agitated, cursing and making threats mostly toward himself. Each time, Woodard is able to calm him down.
After Cook arrives on the scene, but prior to entering the SECU, the operator attempts to have Laliberte talk to Cook on the phone. Laliberte refuses loudly shouting, “I want to see his face” and saying, “I’m not going to hurt him” The operator then tells Woodard that protocols are in place to make sure Cook is safe. Woodard again calms Laliberte.
“He doesn’t want to hurt me or Trooper Cook,” Woodard said to the operator. “And I don’t want him to hurt himself, he’s got the gun to his head right now. I think I can get him to lay down right now.”
Woodard then calmly asks Laliberte to lay down so that Cook can feel safe entering, which he does. Laliberte slides one of his guns away from him while keeping the other to his own head. At that point, the 911 recording obtained by Chatham News + Record cuts off.