Police shoot suspect following West Seattle bank robbery

Seattle police shot and wounded a suspect following a bank robbery and chase that wound from West Seattle to downtown shortly after 10 a.m.

The wounded man is in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center after being shot in the neck, authorities said. Police say he robbed the bank then hopped behind the wheel when his getaway driver fled.

The FBI this afternoon identified the wounded man as Douglas Michael Cox, 50.

A second man arrested in connection with the bank robbery was identified as Kevin V. Palmer, 43. According to the state Department of Corrections, his criminal record includes convictions for theft, possession of stolen property and cocaine possession.

Cox was wounded by gunfire from officers who surrounded the Jeep Cherokee at First Avenue and Spring Street. Cox reportedly ignored several orders to surrender and raised his hands, displaying a handgun. Officers, two Seattle police officers and one King County sheriff's deputy, then opened fire at the car, police said.

Witness Jim Rulf was in an office building at First and Spring when he looked outside and saw at least 10 police cars and several motorcycle officers surround the gold Jeep Cherokee. He said officers shot numerous gunshots into the Jeep.

"You could see the policemen in firing positions and you could hear the shots," Rulf said.

Fearing stray gunshots, Rulf told everyone in his office to hit the floor.

A man seated in a nearby car was slightly injured with stray shrapnel, police said.

Palmer was arrested earlier near Yesler Terrace after he jumped out of the Jeep, police said.

The robbery occurred at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in the 2300 block of California Avenue Southwest in West Seattle shortly after 10 a.m.

FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs said a man dressed in a brown woman's wig, sunglasses, a black jacket and pants with black shoe polish smeared across his cheeks and chin burst into the Wells Fargo Bank branch in West Seattle. The man, identified as Cox, was armed and carried a black garbage bag.

The man brandished the firearm, ordered customers to the floor and jumped over the counter, taking cash. He fled to a waiting SUV, she said.

"Police were responding and a chase started right there," she said. It wound over the West Seattle Bridge, onto Capitol Hill and back into downtown Seattle, she said.

Agents believe Palmer jumped out of the car near First Avenue and Yesler, and was taken into custody following a foot chase.

Cox continued to flee in the SUV, but was intercepted near First Avenue and Spring Street.

A manager at Museum Quality Framing, located near the bank, said he saw a Jeep Cherokee pull into a bus stop near the bank just after 10 a.m. A man climbed out of the passenger side wearing what appeared to be a baggy jogging suit and long shaggy dark brown wig, said the man who only gave his first name, Robert.

A few minutes later he saw the man leave the bank and Jeep drive away.

Harold Chacon, a clerk at a Chevron station across the street from the bank, also saw the man leaving the bank. After the man climbed into the Jeep he thought he saw a red cloud coming from the Jeep. He believes it may have been dye pack placed with the money taken from the bank.

Seattle Times staff reporter Leslie Jones contributed to this report.