Two young gunmen held sight employees hostage in a Brooklyn, New York, bank on Tuesday (22 August) after robbing the establishment of about $ U.S. 29,000 (GBP12,000 sterling).

Then an F.B.I. agent shot one of the robbers, Salvatore Maturelle, through the chest and killed him as the pair were being driven to Kennedy airport to board the jet they had ordered for their getaway.

After the shooting, the other gunman--John Wojtowicz, a 27-year-old Vietnam war veteran and self-confessed homosexual--immediately gave himself up.

At one stage during the 14-hour siege at the bank, Wojtowicz demanded that his male 'wife', Ernest Aaron, be freed from the psychiatric ward of a Brooklyn hospital to come and see him. But Aaron was reluctant to enter the bank for fear of being shot.

A reporter on the spot tells this story (an alternative commentary is provided):