Ex-Girlfriend Leads Police To Robbery Suspect
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A Fort Worth woman shared a terrifying story of being caught up against her will in a manhunt for a bank robbery suspect... who was her former boyfriend.
Barbara Hayes drove herself and Dee Ingram straight into the arms of police at a gasoline convenience store in southeast Fort Worth about 48 hours after Ingram allegedly robbed a downtown bank and about five hours after Hayes' ex-boyfriend suddenly appeared in her bedroom with a gun.
"And all of a sudden he walks in; I'm standing at my dresser and I'm scared to death," said Barbara Hayes, who had seen the bank robbery news. She realized than an ex who she claims had previously threatened her was now likely the same man who had robbed a Frost Bank on Thursday. In a surveillance picture from the bank scene he even wore a hat she'd bought him. But his appearance in her bedroom was much different. "And he pulled his shirt up and showed me what I thought was a gun."
But now he was in the home she shares with children and grandchildren. "All I could think about was I need to get away from the grandchildren, I need to take him away from my home," said Hayes.
Since Ingram doesn't drive, Hayes put him in her car, leaving text messages and occasionally an open cellphone line to family to help police find her. She says Ingram had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer and seemed to be begging for attention. "He kept saying he didn't have anything to live for and so his life was over. He was going to talk to me and once he was finished he was going to call 911 and let the police kill him," explained Hayes.
They eventually tired of driving, and after a couple of stops got a room at a hotel where Hayes said Ingram's rants became worse. "He just was very in and out. Confused; he just was crazy. His thoughts were crazy."
Hayes got Ingram to agree to have them go get her headache medication. When they pulled out of the hotel parking lot she saw police drop in behind her. she drove a few block north to a Valero station where the saga reached its climax. "I put the car in park and I just got out. I headed towards police," she related. "And I kind of froze and they said, 'No, come on, come to me.'"
She fell to her knees behind a car. "I was just terrified they were going to kill him," she said. But no shots were fired. Ingram's gun was an air pistol.
Hayes is glad no one was shot or hurt. "But it was a horrible experience. It was horrible."
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