Kansas City (Mo.) ? Federal charges were filed Thursday against a 44-year-old Kansas man accused in a bizarre bank robbery in which several people were forced to strip to their underwear and taken hostage before the accused gunman was shot trying to commandeer a plane.

Bennie J. Herring II of Wichita, Kan., was charged in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., with armed bank robbery and possessing and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He remains hospitalized with several bullet wounds, though his condition was upgraded to serious from critical.

The Rev. Brad Cooper, a spokesman for the suspect’s family, told KMBC-TV that the family did not know about Herring’s alleged activities until the FBI visited them in Wichita. Herring reportedly told his family he was going to Oklahoma City for a job interview, then to Olathe to apply for another job.

“They’re just in shock. They are waiting for information and trying to get something to have some clue of what happened,” Cooper said.

Herring worked in the computer industry and had been laid off in December after completing a project at Cessna in Wichita, according to media reports.

KMBC reported that Herring lived alone in an apartment and was single, having never been married. Relatives described Herring as a churchgoer, with no criminal record, who didn’t drink or smoke.

The incident began around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday in the Kansas City suburb Olathe, Kan. The federal complaint gave this account:

Herring, wearing a dark ski mask, entered Capitol Federal Savings and ordered bank employees and one customer into the main lobby. Herring bound the hostages with plastic ties and forced the assistant bank manager to put money into a backpack.

After seeing police officers outside the bank, the suspect sent the lone customer outside with a two-way radio so he could communicate with officers, prosecutors said.

Herring is accused of ordering the assistant manager, whom he did not tie up, to get behind the wheel of a van owned by a bank teller, and forcing five of the other hostages into the back of the vehicle.

Prosecutors said Herring fired two shots at police from the inside the van before he ordered the assistant manager to drive to the Johnson County, Kan., Executive Airport. At one point, Herring held a gun to the driver’s head and told police over the two-way radio that he would kill her if they tried to stop the van.

At the airport, Herring allegedly ordered the van onto the tarmac, near a small plane waiting to take off. Herring, who has a pilot’s license, allegedly ordered the plane’s occupants to get out.

That’s when police shot Herring several times.

No one else was hurt, which officials said was the result of good police work and the actions of the hostages themselves.

“If there was a book for what they should have done, I think they did it,” said Tom Glor, vice president of the Kansas Association of Hostage Negotiators. “It seems like every person who played a role in that incident played their role correctly.”

Larry Brubaker, a spokesman for Topeka-based Capitol Federal, said employees and their families went through counseling sessions Thursday and the Olathe bank branch was closed.

“They are doing pretty darn well I think,” Brubaker said.

The bank will reopen today and employees, including some that were taken hostage, will return, he said.

Investigators identified Herring – who was carrying no identification when he was shot – through a 2005 Toyota Corolla registered to him that was parked in Heritage Park, about two miles from the bank.

Five officers who were involved in the shooting are on administrative leave, Olathe Police Sgt. Mike Butaud said, which is standard procedure. And counseling is being offered to any officers who need it, he said.

U.S. Atty. Eric Melgren vowed a “vigorous” prosecution.

“People all over Kansas were shocked by the televised reports of the bank robbery and the ordeal the hostages went through,” Melgren said. “A crime like this makes all of us concerned for the safety of ourselves and our families as we go about our daily lives.”

Jim Cross, a spokesman for Melgren, said Herring would be arraigned as soon as he was physically able to appear in court.