By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS | Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:39am EDT
(Reuters) - A woman remained hospitalized on Wednesday after being held hostage and shot by a gunman in a 12-hour standoff at a rural Louisiana bank that ended when police stormed in, killing the gunman.
The other hostage shot by the gunman died following the incident, which stretched from Tuesday into early Wednesday at a bank in St. Joseph, Louisiana, a town of fewer than 1,200 people about 220 miles north of New Orleans, said State Police Sergeant Eric Cuenca.
A U.S. police SWAT team stormed Tensas State Bank shortly after midnight, killing the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Fuaed Abdo Ahmed, said State Police spokesman Albert Paxton.
The gunman had been threatening to kill one or both of his hostages, and shot them when police entered the building. Police then shot and killed him, Paxton said.
"He was angry and he wanted to kill hostages," Paxton said of the gunman, who initially took three bank employees hostage but released one woman after several hours.
The two wounded hostages were rushed to local hospitals but one of them later died, said State Police Sergeant Eric Cuenca.
The other, who was listed in critical condition, remained hospitalized on Wednesday, said Charla Ducote, spokeswoman for Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Ducote declined further comment.
