Cops: Calif. bank robbery hostage was killed by police

STOCKTON, Calif. - The hostage who died during a bank robbery and chase in Stockton, Calif., last month was killed by police, not the suspects, authorities said Monday.

The results of a preliminary ballistics report show Stockton police fired the bullet or bullets that killed 41-year-old Misty Holt-Singh, Police Chief Eric Jones said. Holt-Singh was found dead at the end of the July 16 bank robbery and chase, which included a running gun battle between the three suspects and officers before a final shootout.

Police have said the sole surviving suspect, 19-year-old Jaime Ramos, used Holt-Singh as a human shield, but they could not immediately tell whether she had died from police gunfire or shots fired by the suspects.

"We don't even know who fired what, how many weapons were fired," said San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau last month, reported CBS San Francisco. "We haven't figured out which bad guy was firing which weapon...which bullets hit who."

They also did not know whenHolt-Singh she was killed.

Holt-Singh was among three women the suspects took hostage during the July 16 holdup. She was a customer whose 12-year-old daughter was waiting outside in the car. The other two women were bank employees.

A police pursuit and shootout followed when the robbers armed with three handguns and an AK-47 fled with the hostages in an SUV owned by one of the employees.

The two bank employees survived the ordeal by either jumping or getting thrown from the SUV as it sped through town during the hour-long chase. Several patrol cars and up to a dozen homes were struck by gunfire in the running gun battle. Two of the suspects, identified by police as Alex Gregory Martinez, 27, and Gilbert Renteria Jr., 30, and Holt-Singh were found dead at the end of a final shootout.

Jaime Ramos has been charged with murder. Investigators say they have linked Martinez to a robbery on Jan. 31 at the same bank branch through surveillance video, witness statements and comparable circumstances.

Police also say they have recovered a dark Buick sedan seen on video dropping off the suspects at the bank. The car had no license plates and had been abandoned in a neighborhood about a 10-minute drive from the bank. Police have been trying to identify the driver.