A robber at a Florida bank who took hostages and held a knife to a woman’s throat and held a knife to her head was killed by a sheriff’s sniper after law enforcement arrived, authorities said. Killed.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said negotiators tried to de-escalate the situation at a Bank of America branch in Fort Myers on Tuesday, but instead the suspects took two hostages inside the building.
“We fear for her safety,” Masseno told reporters. “That’s what we train for. We train for the worst-case scenario.”
The suspect was identified as 36-year-old Sterling Ramon Alavache. The hostages were not injured. There were initially more people inside the bank, but they fled once police arrived. Aravachi was armed with a knife and claimed to have a bomb, but authorities did not immediately confirm this.
The deputy who killed the man has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, which is normal department policy.
The Sheriff’s Office response also included a robotic dog, drones, battering rams and SWAT teams.
“It was a chaotic scene,” Marceno said.
Brett Sands told NBC 2 he works for a consulting firm on the fifth floor of the building.
“It wasn’t until the police came knocking on the door that we realized it was something more serious than someone threatening to rob a bank,” Sands said.
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said local radio host Charlie Lopez, who was eating lunch near the bank. He watched the sniper shooting from his car and provided details to his followers on Facebook.
“I’ve never seen any of this before,” Lopez told Fox 4 News. “I didn’t even know the county had this. You see, in the video, it looks like they almost had the snipers up in the air. And then they had the battering rams. I’ve never seen all the arsenals in Lee County. They There are drones, there are cameras.”
