Armored car heist survivor: Gunman ‘kept firing’

Joseph Walczak said he'd never been shot in his 18 years driving an armored truck.

But what happened on Oct. 4, 2007, was close enough.

Walczak, 72, the lone survivor of a Loomis armored car crew robbed while servicing a Northeast Philadelphia ATM, told a Philadelphia jury on Tuesday how a routine morning erupted into seconds of chaos that left his two partners dead.

Testifying in the double-murder trial of Mustafa Ali, 38, Walczak told the Common Pleas Court jury that "I live with this every day. It's always on my mind."

Questioned by Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry, Walczak said he and his two partners were on their second stop, collecting deposit envelopes shortly after 8 a.m. at a Wachovia Bank branch at Bustleton and Bleigh Avenues.

Walczak, the driver, said he was required to remain locked inside the armored van, the motor running, while his partners serviced the outdoor drive-thru ATM.

There was the sound of a gunshot, Walczak testified. A bullet had struck the van's bulletproof windshield. Though the bullet did not penetrate, the inner-most layer of glass exploded inside the cab.

Walczak said he saw blood on his arm and thought he was shot.

As he ducked down onto the van's seat, Walczak said, he saw a black male dressed in black and wearing a white baseball cap, walking by the van with a gun drawn.

"I couldn't believe what was happening," Walczak said.

"He kept firing, four or five shots," Walczak testified. "It was bang. [He] hit me. Bang-bang-bang-bang. By the time I hit the seat it was over."

When he looked up, Walczak said he saw partner Joseph Alullo, 54, of Levittown, lying face down near the ATM, drawn gun by his side, bleeding profusely. A short distance away was crew chief William Widmaier, 65, of Fairless Hills, lying face up, eyes open.

Both men, former Philadelphia police officers, died at the scene.

Walczak, of Frankford, who said he still drives for Loomis, spent almost two hours on the witness stand, struggling several times to retain his composure as he watched the shootings on captured by Wachovia ATM security camera.

Ali, who lived a short distance from the bank in the Far Northeast, admitted the shooting to police. His lawyers contend he panicked when one of the guards went for his gun and not a premeditated first-degree murder.

Ali is not recognizable in the video, and Walczak testified that he could not identify Ali as the shooter.

Defense attorney Karl D. Schwartz, one of three public defenders representing Ali in the double death penalty case, highlighted inconsistences between Walczak's statements to police in 2007 and his testimony.

Walczak, for example, testified that Alullo told him he believed their van was being followed as it drove from a first stop at the Philadelphia Police & Firemen's Federal Credit Union branch at Castor and Shelmire Avenues in the Northeast.

Barry has also shown the jury a security video from outside the credit union earlier that day that shows a man dressed in the same black clothes and white baseball cap walking by outside.

Barry contends that Ali aborted his trip to work in Trenton that morning and instead stalked the Loomis van and watched how the three-man crew worked.

Schwartz noted that Walczak never mentioned seeing the gunman at the credit union stop when he first talked to homicide detectives.

"So is it fair to say that only after you viewed the video that you said you saw him that day?" asked Schwartz.

"I saw him that day, but it came back to me afterward," Walczak said, adding, "I saw him walk past twice."

Walczak also described the van following them as green instead of the new, black Acura TL Ali drove that day.

Walczak added that he was still in shock when he was first questioned by police. That fact was partly corroborated by police Sgt. Joseph Mears.

Mears, among the first 15 officer on the scene, testified that Walczak was still locked in the cab of the armored car when he arrived - and would not come out.

"He was visibly frightened," Mears told the jury. "I know he was still scared. I spoke him through the glass."