Disguise or no, when they left the alley they passed within five feet of a man by the name of Aleck McKenna, who recognized one them as a member of the Dalton family. He watched the men as they entered the bank and when he saw a gun pointed at the cashier's counter in the Condon Bank, he called out "the bank is being robbed!" The cry was taken up and quickly passed to everyone around the square. Wasting no time, the local townsmen quickly armed themselves with weapons from the hardware store and took up positions to defend the town.

Inside the Condon Bank were C.T. Carpenter, one of the owners; Tom C. Babb, bookkeeper; and Charles M. Ball, cashier. They were quickly taken hostage by the outlaws and ordered to surrender the money. But quick thinking cashier Ball told them there was a time lock on the vault and that it could not be opened for another 10 minutes. Grat, Power and Broadwell were fooled into waiting, which gave the townsmen additional time to get themselves armed.

Meanwhile, in the First National Bank, Bob and Emmett captured Thomas G. Ayers, cashier; W.H. Shepard, and B.S. Ayers, the bookkeeper, who they forced to collect the money. The two Dalton brothers at first tried to escape out the front door using the three bankers as a shield. But when the townsmen shot at them anyway, they decided to use the rear door.

While waiting at the Condon Bank, bullets began to punch through the bank windows and Grat, Broadwell and Power charged out of the bank into the plaza. All three were hit has they ran towards the alley. Bob and Emmett ran around a block, pausing long enough to kill two citizens and entered the alley at about the same time that Grat and the others got there.

Finding cover behind an oil tank, Grat fired several wild shots as John J. Kloehr, Carey Seamen and Marshall Connelly followed them into the alley.

Grat shot and killed Marshal Connelly. Someone hit Bob Dalton, who sat down, fired several aimless shots, slumped over and died. John Kloehr put the wounded Grat down for good with a bullet in the neck. Power died in the dust about 10 feet away. Already mortally wounded, Broadwell got to his horse and rode a half-mile toward safety before he pitched out of the saddle and died in the road.