Teenage hostage-taker and bank robber shot dead by police in North Carolina

A 19-year-old high school student bank robber who unsuccessfully tried to pull off a heist at a North Carolina bank has been shot dead by police, reports said.

Devon Mitchell had taken seven hostages at the bank as a firefight with the police raged. The botched robbery took place at the Cary branch of Wachovia Bank around 3 p.m. local time on Thursday.

Local police chief Pat Bazemore was quoted as saying in reports that the teenaged robber's death was very sad but added that the end result turned out exactly as they wanted. He also strongly defended the officers involved in the operation, RTTNews reports.

Cary is consistently ranked as both one of the nation's safest places to live and one of its fastest-growing. The bank was not far from the Kids R Kids daycare, where officers helped evacuate about 100 children to safety. Four schools near the bank were also locked down.

Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore said the State Bureau of Investigation would be assessing the shooting, as it typically does with all shootings involving law enforcement officers, Washington Post informs.