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FBI: Pizza man had another weapon

'It's not what people traditionally think of as a gun.'

FBI photos of the collar device, top, used to secure a bomb to Wells' neck and the lock, bottom, used to keep the collar in place.
FBI photos of the collar device, top, used to secure a bomb to Wells' neck and the lock, bottom, used to keep the collar in place.

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(CNN) -- The pizza deliveryman who was killed by a bomb clamped around his neck after robbing a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, had another "unique" weapon in his vehicle, the FBI's lead investigator said Wednesday.

Special Agent Ken McCabe would not provide details about the weapon, but said, "It was a little bit unique, and we may release that information also for the public to see what he was carrying," McCabe told CNN's "American Morning." "And maybe that may help with this investigation."

Police said Brian Douglas Wells, 46, robbed a bank Thursday while wearing the bomb locked to his neck by a homemade metal collar. After the robbery, Pennsylvania State Police stopped Wells, handcuffed him and sat him down on the ground, safely away from others. Police then called a bomb squad, but the device exploded before bomb technicians arrived, killing Wells.

Before the blast, Wells had told police he had been forced to rob the bank, and asked police to help him remove the bomb.

"The bomb itself is something you can get instructions off the Internet to make. The collar is what makes this whole device unique," McCabe said.

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An FBI spokesman tells CNN's Mike Brooks that Brian Wells, killed last week when a collar bomb exploded, was carrying an unusual firearm (September 3)
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On Tuesday, the FBI released photographs of the collar, which was fastened by a sophisticated locking mechanism.

"We're hoping that somebody either saw somebody making this in an industrial shop or in their home shop," McCabe said.

The FBI again searched a remote area around a television transmitter site for possible clues Tuesday night, a law enforcement source told CNN. Wells had gone to the area to deliver a pizza -- his supervisor said -- and showed up at the bank an hour later with the bomb attached to him.

McCabe said federal, state and local investigators are trying to determine whether Wells was forced to rob the bank, as he told them, or whether he planned the robbery himself or with an accomplice.

Wells carried a note for bank employees during the robbery and another that included instructions for him, police said. Both notes are being examined for any fingerprints, handwriting, hair or fiber evidence they may yield, and McCabe said investigators had not eliminated the possibility that Wells wrote the notes himself.


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