Lubbock Sheriff's OfficeThe pursuit of the "Take-Over Bandits." Outlandish footage of machine gun fire, bullet holes, and getaway cars. A highly dramatic escape ending not with a bang, but a whimper.
"He didn't make any comments really," said Slaton Detective Tad Ellis.
Last Saturday 31-year-old Guadalupe Fajardo turned himself in to Slaton police after hearing he was a wanted man. On Wednesday afternoon, his soon to be father-in-law was doing PR. "What they're trying to portray on TV isn't the Lupe we know," said Randy Hoffmann. Lupe, he says, is a construction worker, not a mask-wearing, gun-toting, bank robber. A man of simple means - certainly not leading a lifestyle which would reflect over 70 armed robberies.
"There's no doubt in your mind that Lupe is not a bank robber?" asked NewsChannel 11. "I don't believe he is," said Hoffmann.
And even if he is, why would a man who went to such extreme lengths to avoid capture, suddenly decide to walk into the Slaton police department. "Who in their right mind would turn themselves in?They're facing life. I don't see it," said Hoffmann.
But the FBI sees things differently - convinced that Fajardo is the first of three bandits to be captured, his bond has been set at $2 million. Meanwhile, his friends cry foul. "It doesn't fit, not in any way, shape, or form," he said.
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