Man questioned by FBI denies knowing bank robber

ERIE, Pa. -- A man who says his girlfriend is a cousin of the pizza deliveryman killed after a bank robbery by the explosion of a bomb locked to his neck says investigators seized his tools and computer, but he denied Saturday that he ever met the dead man.

"There is no relationship. I don't know Brian Wells," Jimmy Johnson, 46, of Erie, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Wells, 46, was arrested and handcuffed Aug. 28 following a PNC Bank robbery near Erie, but was killed when the bomb attached to a collar locked around his neck exploded while he and police waited for a bomb squad.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Wells locked the bomb onto himself, or if it was locked onto him by someone else who forced him to rob the bank.

Investigators searched Johnson's apartment on Friday, taking tools and his laptop computer. He told The Associated Press that the search warrant was for items such as explosives and firearms.

"I know they didn't find anything like that because I don't keep nothing like that here," Johnson said.

Johnson said his girlfriend, whom he identified only as Angie, was Wells' cousin. Johnson said the couple spoke to FBI agents earlier because Angie had left messages on Wells' answering machine asking him to give her a ride days before he was killed.

Johnson said they had no involvement in the incident.

Wells' landlord and neighbor, Linda Payne, said a woman named Angie used to visit Wells at his apartment. She said Wells had identified Angie as a former school mate.

On Friday, Marilyn Torres, 37, said the FBI searched her garage after telling her they believed Johnson used the building with the knowledge of her son. A man identifying himself as Torres' son Daniel, 21, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn't recognize a photo of Johnson that authorities showed him.

Torres' boyfriend Willie Feliciano, 40, said investigators took items including screwdrivers, duct tape, a piece of a rug, and some bolts and ratchets from the couple's two-car detached garage.

Johnson said he has never been to the garage and does not know the couple.

Officials at two companies where Johnson used to work told a newspaper that FBI agents asked them about the unemployed maintenance technician and his mechanical abilities. Employees at EMSCO Inc. in Girard told the FBI that Johnson didn't have the expertise to build the collar locked to Wells' neck, the Erie Times-News reported Saturday.

Officials at the other plant, Engineered Plastics in Erie, wouldn't comment further.