Bank-Heist Suspect Arrested On Train

BRENTWOOD, N.Y. - A hostage drama that unfolded like a movie script starring a suspected bank robber and a detective who urged him to think of his children at Christmastime ended peacefully yesterday for a trainload of Long Islanders heading to Manhattan.

It began, police said, when Anthony Norman, an unemployed father of eight, robbed a Brentwood bank with what he said was a bomb, and ended with his arrest after a half-hour standoff that ensued when police boarded the Long Island Rail Road train he tried to use for his getaway.

Jerry Maldonado, a 32-year-old systems analyst who was on his way to a computer class in Manhattan, found himself being used as a human shield on the train with what he thought was a gun in his back.

"He just started screaming, `I'm going to take this guy down. I'm not going down. Everybody get out of here. I want the cops out,' " Maldonado said. "All I saw were guns coming out of holsters and people running. He was starting to scream, and the cops were telling him to calm down. I've never seen so many cops at one time in my whole life."

Less than an hour after he had walked into the EAB bank in Brentwood, Norman, 34, was led away in front of the 400 to 450 passengers who had been evacuated from the train. Some passengers applauded; a few yelled, "Shoot him!"

Norman surrendered to a Suffolk County police negotiator who urged him to think of his children and the hostages during Christmas.

"I told him `I don't want your kids to remember you like this.' That's probably what changed his mind," said First Squad Detective Richard Sneider.

No one was injured in the robbery or the hostage situation, which occurred two days after the third anniversary of the Long Island Rail Road massacre in which Colin Ferguson killed six people and wounded 19.

Norman was charged with first-degree robbery and was to be arraigned today. Police said the "bomb" turned out to be two books taped together in a bag.