ERIE, PA. On the Internet, graphic footage turns up of bank robbery explosion

A TV news director said he doesn't know how the footage was leaked.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- Graphic video footage depicting how a man who robbed a bank died when a bomb locked to his neck detonated has appeared on Web sites and has popped up in e-mail inboxes.
The images of the exact moment of Brian Douglas Wells' death have not been televised. Most news stations have chosen to show footage of Wells sitting on the ground shortly before the bomb detonated, as police surrounded the 46-year-old pizza deliveryman after the Aug. 28 robbery of a PNC Bank branch near Erie.
A one-minute clip shot by an employee at WJET-TV in Erie has been turning up on the Internet via Web journals and e-mail, however, the Erie Times-News reported in its Sunday editions.
Chris Huston, news director at WJET, said he was aware the video footage was being circulated, but neither he nor his colleagues know who leaked it or how.
"We wish we did [know]," Huston said. "The reality is that, these days, dubs can be made any number of ways. Once a tape is out, it's out."
Still photograph
The television station has not aired its entire footage, but it did show a still photograph taken from the video that depicts the exact moment of the blast.
Huston said station officials decided to show the photograph after an extensive debate and have no plans to show the photo again.
"We were doing a story that specifically looked at the theory that the bomb explosion intended to hurt others and not Wells. The video of that explosion seemed to support that," Huston said.
An online log created by Greg Valiga, 44, of Erie, provides a link to a site that provides the entire video footage of Wells' death, as well as other graphic video footage. He decided to provide a link when he noticed visitors were using the search engine he provides on his Web log to look for information about Wells.
Since then, his Web journal received as many as 550 hits in one day. The site normally receives about 40 hits a day, Valiga said.
"I've thought about my role in this," Valiga said. "If somebody wants to blame me for allowing people to see this, what about the responsibility of WJET to have filmed it? What about the responsibility of whoever leaked it or the people who are searching for it?" Valiga said.
The FBI continues to lead a task force investigating Wells' death.