Malden Neighborhood's Residents Recount Frightening Police Shootout
MALDEN (CBS) - A day after a violent bank robbery in Saugus, a carjacking, and a deadly gun battle that turned a Malden Street into chaos, residents are trying to reestablish some sense of calm.
Despite an ongoing search for a fourth suspect in the robbery, the District Attorney's Office, the FBI, State Police, and Malden police all declined to comment on Saturday, and declined to release any updates or new details.
Friday evening, the Saugus Bank on Lynn Fells Parkway was robbed. During the attempted escape, the heavily armed suspects carjacked a person and made it to Malden before ending up in a shootout with police.
One of the suspects, 35-year-old William Eekasala, was killed in the shootout with police, two others, 38-year-old Michael Ginnietti of Winthrop and 48-year-old Gabriel Megna had been captured, and the search for a fourth suspect continued.
In Photos: Malden Shootout
On Saturday, residents recounted a frightening couple of hours that began with gunfire erupting and followed with dozens of police officers swarming their neighborhood.
Jigar Purohit, who works at Broadway Market, says police officers were coming from every side.
"It was like a war zone," he said. "Cop cars were all around here. The FBI was here. We just locked down our doors because they wouldn't let us go out. It was a scary moment."
Purohit said he had two customers in the store at the time. Because police wouldn't let anyone leave, they wound up stuck there for two hours.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports
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Kevin Tierney, the President of Saugus Bank also praised the efforts of police and his employees.
"They were uninjured - a little bit shaken up, but they are all doing well," he said of his staff. "They followed their procedures that they learned in training and they performed remarkably well."
