In July 2017, a desperate man held up a bank.
Brian Brown-Easley, 33, entered a branch of Wells Fargo in the Atlanta suburbs and slid the teller a note saying he had a bomb. A Marine veteran, Easley had been struggling to survive solely on a measly disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs. When the monthly payment dried up, he faced certain homelessness but was repeatedly turned away by the Veterans Crisis Line and a regional VA benefits office.
At the bank, he allowed everyone but two employees to leave before alerting 911 and a local news station of what was happening. He said he had no intention of robbing the bank and would let the employees go if he ultimately decided to detonate the bomb. He just wanted the $892 owed to him by the VA.
