Hostage Drama Ends Peacefully In WinonaWINONA LAKE - A hostage situation in Winona Lake ended peacefully this morning about an hour after it began.
Around 9:13 a.m. today, a man entered the Winona Lake Branch of Lake City Bank, wielded a four-inch folding pocketknife and took a bank employee hostage.
Matthew Lee Prater, 32, of 77 Kings Highway, Apt. 5, Winona Lake, was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail this morning after being taken into custody without incident. According to Winona Lake Town Marshal Paul Schmitt, charges of felony kidnapping and criminal confinement will be sought against Prater, who is being held without bond.
Police say Prater entered the bank with an agenda, but did not intend to rob the bank and took no money.
After taking the woman hostage, he made her walk to his apartment, which is directly across the street from the bank.
Once inside the apartment, Schmitt said Prater engaged in small talk with the hostage and told her that he was "doing this for the children of the United States" and referenced Sept. 11.
Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker pulled into the apartment building's parking lot to begin looking for the suspect, and Prater was looking out the window of his upstairs apartment. Whitaker said he did not know where the suspect had fled to, but police knew that the man had fled in that direction.
"When I pulled in at the scene, (the suspect) made it known that he was the one we were looking for," Whitaker said. "My assumption was that he thought we knew where he was at."
The City/County Special Weapons and Tactics Team arrived at the scene and surrounded the apartment building, as negotiations with Prater began.
Prater asked to negotiate with Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department Lt. Sam Whitaker. During the negotiations, Prater reportedly said he wanted a van and demanded that there be at least three television news vans out front when he left.
Shortly after, negotiations broke down.
Members of the SWAT team were instructed to enter the apartment when they heard the victim screaming from inside. Later police learned that the victims started screaming because Prater allegedly told her to do so.
The SWAT team entered the apartment and took Prater into custody without incident and safely removed the hostage from the apartment.
The hostage was released and returned to the bank around 10:05 a.m.
Police said Prater did not know the hostage and did not target her specifically. They also said Prater had an agenda but did not say what that agenda entailed.
"There couldn't have been a better result in this incident," Scott Whitaker said.
"The police did a a good job," said Ara Norris, a resident of the apartment below Prater's. "All I heard was a girl screaming. I looked out the window and saw men in bullet-proof vests. Everything worked out well."
Another resident of the apartment building, Robin Oswalt, was sleeping at the time the incident occurred. Oswalt said, "This was a nice morning wake-up call." She added that she heard the man say, "You don't know who I am, I'm an O.G. (old gangster)."
Amy Chambers said she and a girlfriend had coffee this morning before the incident. When the friend left, Chambers said, "She told me some drunk guy was outside asking if she was going to the revolution." The friend reportedly said the man was carrying a very large beer, and she thought he was just drunk and thought nothing of it. It has not been confirmed that Prater was the man her friend was speaking about.
Drugs and alcohol were found in Prater's apartment, but police did not know if Prater was under the influence at the time of the incident.
The original 911 call was made by a bank employee who also activated the panic alarm in the bank. There were only two people, both employees, in the bank at the time the incident occurred.
The Winona Lake Police Department was assisted by the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department, Warsaw Police Department, the Indiana State Police and the City/County SWAT Team.
