Fort Myers SWAT team kills bank robber saving 2 hostages

By Web staff

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    FORT MYERS, Florida (WSVN) — A Florida SWAT sniper pulled the trigger to save two lives.

Newly released video shows the critical shot taken by a SWAT team sniper to end a hostage situation

“I wanna make sure you’re the most relaxed shoots go, go, go,” said a Lee County Sheriff’s Office officer.

Police from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a Bank of America in Fort Myers.

They state a bank robber entered the building with a knife and claimed to have a bomb. He took a man and woman hostage.

SWAT negotiators tried to talk to the robber and get him to surrender peacefully.

“I might act out too, I get it, I empathize with that situation. Believe me, I get it. OK and I wanna be able to help you with that,” said a negotiator.

But the bank robber soon got too close for comfort to the hostages.

“At one point, he became physical, he started to put one of the hostages in like a headlock and he had the knife to her throat,” said Lee County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

That’s when they knew, they had to take action.

“When he presented deadly force like that, our SWAT sniper shot and killed the suspect,” said Marceno.

It wasn’t an easy shot as the sniper fired directly through a computer monitor and still hit the target, right in the forehead.

“I wanna make sure you’re the most relaxed gunshot alavache,” said another LCSO officer.

The team moved in under the cover of flashbangs to confirm the death and safely release the hostages.

The bullet that traveled through the computer monitor was specifically chosen for the shot. It’s known for its reliability in going through moderately sized barriers.

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