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Sniper in Florida fires through computer monitor to take out bank robber holding hostages

June 10, 2024 | | Print Article

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Florida released video footage on Saturday that shows a bad-ass sniper shooting through a computer monitor to take out an armed bank robber.

The incident took place on Feb. 6 at a Fort Myers Bank of America where the robber was holding hostages. The sniper deliberately shot through the monitor and hit the criminal dead center in the forehead sending him into oblivion instantly.

According to Fox News, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said responding deputies reported the assailant had a knife and was claiming he also had a bomb. He was holding a man and a woman hostage and at one point was holding the knife to the woman’s throat. He tried to use her as a human shield. Thankfully, no one was hurt except the robber.

“We tried to negotiate with him continuously,” Marceno stated during a press conference. Despite all efforts, the suspect decided to take hostages rather than surrender which turned out to be a fatal mistake.

(Video Credit: Daily Mail)

“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,” Fox News noted.

“The suspect, identified by LCSO as 36-year-old Sterling Alavache, fell to the ground while the hostages ran away,” the media outlet added. “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 video footage shows the monitor with a large hole in it. To its credit, it kept 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 commented on Facebook. “The .308 caliber bullet used is specifically selected due to its known ballistic reliability traveling through intermediate barriers.”

“The robbery attempt, hostage situation, and sniper fire brought a bustling suburban area lined with chain restaurants, hotels, an outdoor mall, and office buildings to a terrifying halt as the Lee County Sheriff´s Office responded with tools including a robotic dog, drones, a battering ram, and a SWAT team,” the Daily Mail reported.

It’s unknown exactly where the sniper shot from but he was obviously working in conjunction with other SWAT members who had surrounded the bank to free the hostages.

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“Law enforcement officers stormed the scene shortly after the call came in about a bank robbery south of Fort Myers,” the Daily Mail wrote. “Deputies rushed into the multistory building that houses the bank, securing it as dozens of terrified people ran outside, said Marceno, who described it as ‘a chaotic scene.'”

Unsurprisingly, the assailant was mentally unstable and on drugs.

“Alavache, the suspect who was killed, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression, also referred to as bipolar disorder, according to his GoFundMe. The father-of-three also battled drug and alcohol addiction which only got worse following the death of his wife in 2018,” the Daily Mail said.

“In 2022, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease causing progressive shutdown of the body through damage to the central nervous system and it was then he entered a downward spiral of drugs and depression once again,” the outlet concluded.

Users on X applauded the sniper:

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