Credit union employee held at knifepoint during brief hostage standoff

A 54-year-old credit union employee is lucky to be alive today after a man attempted to rob a Fresno, Calif. branch of the $2.7 billion Educational Employees Credit Union Tuesday by taking her hostage while holding a large steak knife to her neck, Fresno Police said.

This is the third attempted credit union robbery/hostage incident within the last two months.

Jesse Anthony Flores, 32, was charged with attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, Fresno Police Lt. Joe Gomez said. Police declined to identify the victim. Flores robbed the same credit union branch on East Shaw Avenue in June 2011. He served a three-year sentence in a hospital prison and was released in 2015, police reported.

Wearing a red bandana and sunglasses, Flores walked up to the front doors at the East Shaw Avenue branch Tuesday morning as employees reported to work. The manager inside the branch keeps the front doors locked until employees give a thumb up signaling it’s safe to open the doors.

 

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