Wilson man tells feds he robbed SC bank, killed two employees

Brandon Michael Council, 32, faces charges of armed bank robbery with a deadly weapon resulting in death and use, carry and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

The CresCom Bank branch at 1230 16th Ave. in Conway, S.C., was held up Monday afternoon, and branch manager Kathryn "Katie" Skeen, 36, of Green Sea, S.C., and Donna Major, 59, of Conway, were killed.

Bank security camera footage shows a man shoot a CresCom teller several times, jump over the bank counter and shoot another employee several times as she hid under a desk, according to an FBI affidavit to support the charges against Council.

Almost $15,300 was taken in the robbery, and the robber fled in a Chrysler 200 belonging to one of the victims, the affidavit states. He also took the key fob for a Honda belonging to the other victim, according to the affidavit.

Investigators identified Council, who also was wanted in an Aug. 11 robbery of a BB&T branch in Wilson, as a person of interest in the robbery after a woman told authorities she had dropped him off at a Conway motel several days before the robbery.

Council was apprehended Wednesday after police got a tip that he was spotted in Greenville, and he admitted to investigators that he had robbed the South Carolina bank and had shot the two employees, according to the affidavit.

"Council told agents that he was desperate, he needed money and that he knew he was going to shoot someone," the affidavit states. "Council told agents that he had watched a movie called 'Get Rich or Die Tryin'.' Council stated that he did not deserve to live."

The 2005 movie starred rapper 50 Cent as a man who tries to leave his life in the drug trade for a music career.