Security camera video footage captured a Florida sheriff's office SWAT unit sniper take down a man who was holding a woman hostage by knifepoint in a bank earlier this year.
The incident happened Feb. 6 when Sterling Alavache, 36, walked into a Bank of America location in Fort Myers and claimed to have a bomb, WBBH-TV reports. Alavache jumped over a counter and took two people hostage.
As a standoff ensued with Lee County sheriff's deputies, Alavache grabbed one of the hostages and held a knife to her throat. That's when a SWAT unit got into position outside the bank's doors and prepared to end the situation.
A sniper with the team took careful aim at Alavance from the lobby and fired a shot. The bullet went through a computer monitor and fatally struck Alavance, who was positioned between the two hostages.
“We train for the worst-case scenario. We train for hostage negotiations and what the means going from worst-case to best scenario,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said at the time, according to WPEC-TV. “This is a very unfortunate incident; but I will tell you, the two hostages being safe was our top priority.”
In the video, Lt. Todd Olmer explained that a .308-caliber bullet was specifically chose because of "its known ballistic reliability traveling through intermediate barriers."
“Due to the suspect’s limited exposure, the sniper took a planned and deliberate shot through a computer monitor, striking the suspect in the center of the forehead, killing him instantly,” he said.
“Firing through barriers is a trained and routinely practiced skill by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office special operations unit snipers,” Olmer added.
