ONLY ON 11: Bank robbery suspect admits to crime, cites drugs as motive

SHALER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A former part-time West View police officer admitted to Channel 11’s Alan Jennings Thursday that he robbed a bank in Shaler in April.

Sean Hein, 28, was in court for a preliminary hearing Thursday, having been arrested in connection with a bank robbery at the First Commonwealth Bank on Saxonburg Boulevard.

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When asked by Jennings why he robbed the bank, Hein responded, “Drugs.”

Police said Hein entered the bank on April 17 and handed the teller a note, which read, in part, “Good afternoon. This is not my first bank robbery. Don’t be a hero.”

On Thursday, Hein told Jennings that he started using heroin after being shot twice while off-duty with his own gun. He said the post-surgery pain was too much to bear.

“I was shot and I got on pain medicine, and then it escalated from there,” he said. “My whole family unfolded. It (the addiction) just kept getting the better of me.”

Hein is facing numerous charges, including robbery, terroristic threats, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime.

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