Video released by a Florida sheriff’s office shows the moment a sniper shot through a computer monitor and killed a suspected armed bank robber who was holding hostages.
It all unfolded Feb. 6 at a Fort Myers Bank of America, said Sheriff Carmine Marceno of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO). Responding deputies discovered the suspect had a knife and claimed he had a bomb while detaining a man and a woman.
“We tried to negotiate with him continuously,” Marceno said in a previous press conference, adding that at one point, the suspect held a knife to the female hostage’s throat.
It was after the suspect “presented deadly force” that an LCSO Special Operations Unit sniper fired a “planned and deliberate shot through a computer monitor,” striking the suspect in the center of the forehead and killing him instantly.
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Officers waiting in the moments before a Lee County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit sniper fired upon an alleged bank robber who was holding hostages on Feb. 6, 2024. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
LCSO circled the computer monitor behind the teller counter that the sniper shot through to hit the suspect in his forehead. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
The suspect, identified by LCSO as 36-year-old Sterling Alavache, fell to the ground while the hostages ran away.
After the suspect was shot, flash bangs were used as distraction devices as the Special Operations Unit moved in to remove the hostages and confirm that the suspect was “no longer a threat,” the sheriff said.
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The suspect was allegedly armed with a knife and told responding deputies that he had a bomb. He can be seen here, hiding between the two hostages. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
Sterling Alavache, 36, had an “extensive criminal history” that included drug trafficking, aggravated assault and carrying a concealed firearm from several states, LCSO said. He was a convicted felon. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
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Toward the end of the video, the monitor could be seen with a gaping hole through it, but still functioning.
“Firing through barriers is a trained and routinely practiced skill by Lee County Sheriff’s Special Operations Unit snipers,” LCSO public information officer Lieutenant Todd Olmer said in the video shared on Facebook. “The .308 caliber bullet used is specifically selected due to its known ballistic reliability traveling through intermediate barriers.”
