A robber who took people hostage inside a Florida bank and claimed to have a bomb was shot and killed by a SWAT sniper on Tuesday.
Police responded to the Bank of America in Fort Myers shortly after 11 a.m. after receiving a report of an armed robbery and immediately realized the situation had escalated, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
As deputies entered the bank, “dozens of people ran out,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a chaotic scene,” he said, adding that the FBI also responded. “Quickly we were face-to-face with a male suspect who was armed with a knife. He also claimed he had a bomb.”
The suspect, later identified as 36-year-old Sterling Alavache, was also holding two people hostage.
“We tried to negotiate with him continuously,” said Marceno. “At one point during negotiations, he became physical. He started to put one of the hostages in a headlock and he had a knife to her throat… we were in fear for her life and her safety.”