1:28 p.m.: The standoff begins after a police call about a hit-and-run accident in the parking lot of Wheaton Bank & Trust, 211 S. Wheaton Ave. A police officer responds, and while surveying the parking lot, the offender grabs him from behind and puts an open blade to his throat.

He then disarms the officer and runs into the bank. Twelve people are taken hostage.

Police believe the hit-and-run call was a ruse to draw the officer to the area.

The officer, who was only identified as a veteran of more than 10 years, suffers a cut on his forearm during the struggle. He is treated at an area hospital and released.

1:40 p.m.: Numerous area law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI are called to the scene.
Traffic is blocked near the bank.

1:50 p.m.: Customers in nearby Washington Mutual Bank, 370 W. Front St., are incorrectly informed that Wheaton Bank & Trust is being robbed.

“All of a sudden everybody got very animated,” said Pat Schultz, a personal line agent at the insurance firm of Langan Haeger Vincent & Born Inc. in Wheaton, who had stopped at Washington Mutual to make a deposit. "When I left, I was walking east on Front. They were already redirecting traffic, and I stopped right there. There were police cars parked on the road; and a lot of police were there with their guns drawn.

"It looked just like it does in the movies, Cars were parked in the middle of the street with their doors open; and police were crouched down behind the cars."

Over the course of the next few hours, downtown Wheaton is on lockdown. Cars and pedestrians are rerouted around a several-block area of the bank; and train traffic on the Union Pacific West Line is halted.

Employees at nearby businesses and passersby jockey for vantage points as news and rumors of what is happening circulate through the crowds.

3:13 p.m.: An armored personnel carrier arrives at the scene.

Kale's Uniform Shop at Hale and Liberty is being used as a staging area, with law-enforcement personnel suiting up.

3:45 p.m.: Wheaton police, with the FBI and DuPage County Sheriff’s deputies, negotiate the release of 10 of the hostages.

4:15 p.m.: Two hostages are still in the building when a single gunshot is heard.

4:21 p.m.: SWAT officers breach the east side of the building and find the suspect dead from a self-inflicted wound.

Because the investigation is ongoing, police decline to identify the offender, any of the hostages or discuss possible motives for the crime.

4:28 p.m.: Unconfirmed reports say that the hostage situation at Wheaton Bank and Trust is over.
Officers are seen removing their SWAT garb; and trains are getting ready to run again on the Union Pacific line.

A strong police presence remains at the scene.

4:34 p.m.: Union Pacific trains are running as normal, making all scheduled stops, it is announced on a westbound train, according to a passenger.

4:54 p.m.: An unnamed police source confirms that the Wheaton officer's gun was wrested away by the offender.

5:55 p.m.: A press conference confirms that the man who took hostages at a downtown Wheaton bank Friday afternoon is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The man is only identified as being in his 50s.