An 18-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting two U.S. Bank employees in Berea, Kentucky, before rifling through the teller drawers for cash and speeding off in his car.
Brailen Weaver of Covington, Kentucky, entered the bank at around 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, wearing a black mask and gloves, according to the arrest affidavit. Weaver shot and killed a male U.S. Bank employee right after walking into the branch and then gunned down a female teller before he searched through multiple drawers, the affidavit states.
The suspect fled the bank in a silver BMW sedan, which authorities tracked down after finding the same car listed for sale on Facebook by Weaver. Investigators then reviewed Weaver’s social media and found photos of him that matched the description of the suspect seen on the bank’s security cameras.
Weaver also posted a meme on Instagram just hours after he allegedly robbed the bank and killed two employees, according to the FBI. The meme depicts an alien holding a stash of $100 bills with the caption, “I pledge allegiance to da bag.”
FBI
On Thursday evening, authorities tracked Weaver to Somerset, Kentucky, which is about 40 miles southwest of Berea. A short time later, the FBI spotted Weaver’s vehicle on Interstate 75, and federal, state, and local law enforcement pursued the suspect in a high-speed chase.
The affidavit states that Weaver reached speeds of nearly 130 mph and dodged spike strips laid out in the road by law enforcement. The suspect eventually crashed as he was driving toward downtown Lexington, but escaped on foot. Authorities found a firearm in the suspect’s abandoned BMW. Weaver was finally arrested in downtown Lexington and faces federal charges of armed bank robbery and using/discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
“The perpetrator’s heinous actions were not only indefensible but cowardly,” said Olivia Olson, the special agent in charge at the FBI’s Louisville field office. “While there is no longer imminent danger, we understand that the tragedy is far from over for the community. The only solace that we can offer is that this individual who valued a stolen dollar more than two human lives will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
The killings appear to be the first deadly shooting in a bank robbery in the United States since 2021, when a man fatally shot a security guard at a bank in Gary, Indiana, during an attempted robbery. In 2019, a 21-year-old man executed five women at a SunTrust bank in Sebring, Florida. In that shooting, there was no indication that the gunman intended to rob the bank.
Bank robberies in the United States are becoming increasingly uncommon as banks improve security and hold less cash at any given time, reflecting society’s shift to digital payments.
