Man who held hostages at a St. Cloud Wells Fargo branch pleads guilty

A Waite Park man has pleaded guilty in federal court to holding bank employees hostage during a robbery at a St. Cloud bank three years ago.

Ray Reco McNeary, 38, was arrested May 6, 2021, following a nearly nine-hour standoff at a Wells Fargo Bank on the west side of St. Cloud. He was charged with seven felony counts in Stearns County District Court and one count of armed bank robbery in U.S. District Court.

According to court documents, McNeary went to the bank alleging fraud on his account and became enraged when the bank manager was unable to locate his account. He then demanded that $60,000 from the vault be placed in a bag, and he threatened the five bank employees he was holding hostage, documents state.

He also repeatedly held a pair of scissors against the bank manager’s back and neck, and said he wanted to be shot by police so he would be a martyr and his family would receive money, documents state.

The FBI communicated with McNeary using phone calls, written messages and loudspeakers. The hostages left the bank throughout the afternoon and evening to the cheers of a crowd of onlookers that gathered in the Costco parking lot across the street from the bank.

In March 2022, McNeary was found incompetent to stand trial in federal court. He was found competent to proceed in June.

“Ray has expressed deep remorse,” Paul Engh, McNeary’s attorney, said Monday. “And at sentencing, he wants to apologize to everyone who was in the bank.”

The Stearns County case is ongoing. The date of sentencing in federal court has not been set.