On March 11, 1997, Stanley Pijanowski III, 52, was shot and killed inside the Comerica bank branch he managed on Detroit’s east side. The attack began just before 10:00 a.m. when 21-year-old Allen Lane Griffin Jr., armed with a 12-gauge pump shotgun, wounded a jogger, stole a car, then entered the bank. Witnesses described Griffin as either announcing a holdup or screaming incoherently; he forced employees and customers to recite the Lord’s Prayer and interjected obscenities.

During the rampage Griffin fatally shot 25-year-old bank employee James Isom and then Pijanowski in a back office; an assistant branch manager was wounded but survived. Griffin took 77-year-old customer Stanley Hays as a hostage after exiting, pushed him to the ground, and fatally shot him. Police fired on Griffin and killed him at the scene. Victims family lawsuits later alleged a possible personal dispute and an alleged sex-for-cash relationship between Griffin and Pijanowski, but that motive was not proven and some witnesses reportedly recanted.