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ERIE, Pa. (Sept. 1) - A man found dead at his home Sunday was a friend and co-worker of a bank robber who died in a bizarre incident three days earlier.
Pennsylvania state police said they didn't see a link between the two deaths. Still, they sent a bomb squad to search the home of Robert Pinetti in Lawrence Park Township as a precaution.
''There was nothing overtly obvious as to the cause of his death,'' state police Cpl. Mark Zaleski said, ''but because there's a relationship between the two individuals, we are over there.''
Pinetti, 43, worked with Brian Douglas Wells, 46, who died Thursday shortly after robbing a bank in Erie. Minutes before the bomb went off, Wells told officers who stopped him that he had been forced to rob the bank.
"I don't have a lot of time. He pulled out a key and started a timer," Wells told police as he sat on the ground handcuffed. "It's gonna go off. I'm not lying."
The device strapped to his chest exploded before the bomb squad could arrive. No one else was injured.
Wells had gone to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with the bomb strapped to his body.
Police received a call early Sunday asking for medical assistance at the home where Pinetti lived with his parents, but the man refused medical assistance, Zaleski said.
A few hours later, authorities were called again after his parents found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the home and an autopsy was scheduled, Zaleski said.
FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said there was no reason to connect Pinetti's death to Wells' case.
There was no answer at the pizza shop where both men worked.
Pennsylvania state police said they didn't see a link between the two deaths. Still, they sent a bomb squad to search the home of Robert Pinetti in Lawrence Park Township as a precaution.
''There was nothing overtly obvious as to the cause of his death,'' state police Cpl. Mark Zaleski said, ''but because there's a relationship between the two individuals, we are over there.''
Pinetti, 43, worked with Brian Douglas Wells, 46, who died Thursday shortly after robbing a bank in Erie. Minutes before the bomb went off, Wells told officers who stopped him that he had been forced to rob the bank.
"I don't have a lot of time. He pulled out a key and started a timer," Wells told police as he sat on the ground handcuffed. "It's gonna go off. I'm not lying."
The device strapped to his chest exploded before the bomb squad could arrive. No one else was injured.
Wells had gone to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with the bomb strapped to his body.
Police received a call early Sunday asking for medical assistance at the home where Pinetti lived with his parents, but the man refused medical assistance, Zaleski said.
A few hours later, authorities were called again after his parents found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the home and an autopsy was scheduled, Zaleski said.
FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said there was no reason to connect Pinetti's death to Wells' case.
There was no answer at the pizza shop where both men worked.