Police release video of sniper shooting bank robbery suspect - who was holding a knife to the throat of a hostage

FORT MYERS, FL - Score one for the good guys. 

KOMO News reports that a sniper assigned to the Lee County Sheriff’s Department took out a suspect involved in an armed robbery at a Bank of America branch in Fort Myers back on February 6. In a newly released video by the sheriff’s department, a police sniper shot and killed the suspect, who had taken two people hostage, through a computer monitor. 

The video shows sheriff’s deputies initially negotiating with the 36-year-old man, Sterling Avalanche, who took the two hostages after law enforcement authorities arrived on scene. 

The suspect told deputies he had a bomb before using the two hostages as a human shield. A sheriff’s department negotiator attempted to get the suspect to surrender, however he put one of the hostages in a headlock and held a knife to her throat, which spurred the sniper to take him out. 

The video shows SWAT members positioned outside the bank, with a sniper using another officer’s shoulder to steady his rifle. 

“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,” Lee County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Lt. Todd Olmer. 

Internal video inside the bank shows a bullet hole through a computer monitor with the suspect lying on the ground behind the hostages. The SWAT team is then seen entering the bank and deploying flash grenades before checking on the suspect to ensure he was incapacitated. 

“Shooting positions like these are trained regularly by snipers for time-critical incidents like these,” Olmer said. He noted that the .308 caliber bullet used by the sniper “is specifically selected due to its known ballistic reliability traveling through intermediate barriers.” 

Shortly after the incident, WINK spoke to some of the witnesses, including Marsha Brown, WFTV-9 reported. 

“He came running in, and he was screaming, ‘I have a bomb. I have a bomb.’” she told the outlet. “He said, ‘I have a bomb, and I will use it.’” 

“He wasn’t trying to retain us at all. He just said, ‘Get out,’ and we all ran,” Brown said. “I didn’t know that he had hostages. He was young. Foolish, very foolish. No mask.” 

According to Avalanche’s friends, he was “a good person” (aren’t they all?) who struggled with addiction, WINK reported.

The deputy who shot and killed Avalanche was identified as Lt. Paul Nader, who was recognized as Deputy of the Quarter by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on June 5, 2024.