After police chase, Fort Worth ATM burglary suspect slips below water, drowns in pond
A man whom police suspected of being involved in the burglary of a north Fort Worth ATM drowned early Saturday in a pond when he drove a sport utility vehicle into clouded water as an officer pursued.
Bayley Wanser, 22, and another man were connected to an attempt to break into the machine in the drive-thru at the Chase Bank in the 4500 block of Western Center Boulevard, police alleged. When officers arrived about 3:30 a.m., the suspects were gone. The ATM’s bottom metal door had been pried open, according to a police report. An inner door was secured, suggesting that the suspects left without cash.
By telephone, a bank security employee told Officer David Nguyen, who was at the scene, that it appeared in a video recording that the suspects were in a white Kia Sorento. As Nguyen left the bank, he saw a white SUV driving in the 6600 block of North Beach Street and tried to stop it.
Wanser, the SUV’s driver, did not pull over, and Nguyen pursued.
At about 70 mph, Wanser lost control of the SUV as he tried to make a sharp turn heading east on Black Ash Drive. The vehicle struck a curb, went over grass and a sidewalk and into the small pond.
At first, the water appeared to the officers to be shallow. The SUV was afloat, and the suspects got out.
“Hands up!” Nguyen directed.
Other officers arrived at the pond, and they told Wanser and Christopher Walker, 29, to swim toward the shore.
“Officers thought the occupants were in the shallow part and believed they could safely swim back to shore,” Nguyen wrote in a report. They struggled, and it was clear the water was deeper than it seemed.
It took about a minute for the SUV to become submerged.
Walker made it.
As the SUV sank, officers told Wanser that he would need to continue toward them.
Wanser told them he could not swim.
Three officers took off their gear and uniforms and rushed into the pond.
The officers made multiple attempts at a rescue, returning to the shore to catch their breath in between. They did not have a flotation device.
Wanser struggled as the officers tried to reach him. He went under the water and drowned.
It was 4:15 a.m.
About two hours later, the Fort Worth Fire Department dive team found Wanser’s body. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office listed his address as a jail in Bonham, in Fannin County.
This story was originally published July 12, 2020 at 6:42 PM.
