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Earlier today I spoke with Richard Joyal, cousin of the suspected bank robber shot by Seattle police Tuesday, Doug Cox. Our updated story on the shooting can be found here. Yesterday's coverage is here.
Speaking by phone, Joyal described his cousin's fall from grace at middle age. The shooting came as a shock to Cox's relatives, as did each of the former Army sergeant's previous bank robbery convictions. None of it jibes with Joyal's memories of his cousin, who lived his first 35 years as a sensible, sober man, Joyal said.
Cox was in serious condition at the Harborview Medical Center intensive care unit late Wednesday night.
Here's a little more from my interview with Joyal and federal court documents from Cox's previous run-ins with the law:
Richard Joyal couldn't believe what he was hearing when his father called in April 1998 to tell him his cousin Douglas Cox had been arrested.
Cox had been a bright child and stand-up soldier during his four years in the Army, said Joyal, a retired Department of Justice employee who made most of his career working in federal prisons. His drinking had been out of control, sure, but it didn't make any sense that Cox would begin robbing Spokane-area banks at age 40.
"My dad called me and said 'Doug's in jail.' And I said 'Doug who? Can't be Doug Cox,' " Joyal said. "He was the type of guy you just loved to be around."
Joyal said his cousin's trouble with alcohol started in 1992, around the time his wife left him. Cox had been getting worse since. According to court documents, he went through inpatient treatment for alcoholism in 1997. He failed to complete follow-up treatments and was fired from his job of 17 years with the Washington Water Power Co.
Cox had been a well-liked community member in Colville, Joyal said, and his employers did what they could to get him help. But his life continued to fall apart until his arrest following robberies at four banks.
Armed with a bb gun, Cox had robbed the banks between December 1997 and April 1998. Days after the final robbery, FBI agents spotted a truck linked to the crimes parked outside a Spokane budget hotel, according to press reports. Cox, who owned the pickup, was jailed and agents went on to search Cox's home looking for proceeds of the robberies, thought to be about $13,000.
Cox pleaded guilty to the bank robberies and spent 36 months of a 45-month sentence in federal prison before his release in April 2001.
He earned a certificate from a Spokane technical college after his release and started looking for work. Joyal said Cox's family hoped he'd gotten himself together. They were to be disappointed.
Cox moved to the Seattle area in March 2002 and immediately went back to bank robbery. On March 19, 2002, Cox robbed the Kenmore branch of U.S. Bank. Cox robbed a second bank May 2, and was apprehended minutes later.
In plea for leniency filed following the robberies, Cox's attorney depicted him as a man unable to hold his life together, let alone avoid police. Lost in Fife following the robbery, Cox drove slowly toward Interstate 5 until officers arrested him.
"He could not even figure a way to evade detection or arrest," attorney Paula Olson said in a statement to the court. "Once he was arrested, he confessed to the first robbery" without being prompted by police.
Cox pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery and a probation violation. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was released June 6 after serving just five.
Joyal said he visited his cousin at a California federal prison. Cox hated being jailed, Joyal said, and constantly feared he'd be attacked. Confinement played on his already nervous nature
In interviews with psychologists, Cox said he saw bank robbery as a way to cope with his depression and anxiety. Clinical psychologist Mark Whitehill said Cox's claim didn't seem "unreasonable in light of the clinical issues" he faced.
Cox's family had high hopes for the man since his June 6 release from prison, Joyal said. He seemed upbeat in phone conversations, optimistic about his job prospects and happy to be out of a halfway house.
"We thought everything was going to be great," Joyal said. "He was joyful. There was no indication that anything was bugging him."
According to police, three Seattle officers and a King County Sheriff's deputy opened fire on Cox Tuesday in downtown Seattle after Cox brandished a handgun. Cox had been fleeing the scene of a bank robbery at a West Seattle. The gun in Cox's hand turned out to be a cheap pellet pistol.
Joyal guesses he's still in shock over the shooting. He'd like to think his cousin didn't want police to fire, but he said Cox had said previously that he robbed banks looking to be killed.
News of his shooting has hit Cox's 78-year-old mother the hardest, Joyal said.
"We just thought Doug was on the right path," Joyal said of his cousin. "It's just killing (Cox's mother). She's such a beautiful person, and it's killing her."
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Posted by unregistered user at 7/3/08 12:36 a.m.
I'm no law-and-order Republican by any means, but could somebody please tell me why this idiot hadn't been permanently confined? He has proven - on numerous occasions - that he's simply not able to live in civil society.
This last inbred stunt could have easily caused harm or death to innocent bystanders. And yet he kept being let out of prison. It's almost as if this habitual offender was planning his next crime even before he got out of jail.
This moron should be the poster boy for Thrre Strikes laws. Whatever happened to that, anyways???