Gunman releases 1 of 3 hostages held at Louisiana bank as negotiations continue

Authorities say a gunman who took three people hostage at a rural Louisiana bank Tuesday has released a female bank teller, and negotiations are ongoing to secure the release of the other two held, a man and a woman. 

Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson confirmed the release of the hostage and said authorities were talking with her about the nine-hour ordeal.

KNOE reports the three hostages are employees at the Tensas State Bank in St. Joseph, La., southeast of Monroe. 

Police have identified the suspect as a 20-year-old man whose family owns a store across the street from a bank branch. Authorities have no reason to believe any hostage has been hurt, Edmonson said.

The man -- a U.S. citizen and local resident -- has been calm and has made some demands, Edmonson said. He would not describe the demands or further identify the gunman.

"We're still working with him to determine exactly what his intent is," Edmonson said.

The gunman, carrying at least a handgun, took them captive about 12:30 p.m. at the Tensas State Bank branch in St. Joseph, and the negotiator talked with him throughout the afternoon, said state police spokesman Trooper Albert Paxton.

St. Joseph is a town of nearly 1,200 people and nearly one-third of the parish's 5,000 residents live under the federal poverty level, according to U.S. Census figures.

Farmland makes up more than 45 percent of the 600-square-mile parish, with most of it in cotton, feed grains, soybeans and wheat.

Richardo Miles, a 25-year-old farmworker, said he lives about a half-mile from the bank. He sat on his bicycle at a roadblock near an abandoned hardware store about a quarter-mile away, watching dozens of first responders, including paramedics and heavily armed men in camouflage.

The sight of the state police bomb squad and SWAT team unnerved many people in the sleepy farm town, Miles said.

 "It's kind of startling for the residents. We're not accustomed to this kind of activity," said Miles. "Some people are pretty scared. They're nervous."

Click for more from KNOE. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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