Police Sniper Shoots and Kills Armed Bank Robber and Hostage Taker in Florida Bank of America

A Lee County Sheriff's Department SWAT team ended a hostage situation at the Bank of America in Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday when a SWAT sniper shot and killed the suspect, who had taken a hostage and was restraining the victim in a headlock while also holding a knife to the victim's throat. The suspect, later identified as 36-year-old Sterling Alavache, was claiming to be armed with a bomb, along with the knife seen by law enforcement.

The incident originally unfolded earlier that morning, around 11 AM, when police were called to the location of the Bank of America regarding reports that a man had entered the bank claiming that he had a bomb attached to him and that he was attempting to take hostages. It was unclear at the time if the suspect was attempting to rob the bank or if he had any other plans. When police arrived, along with a local FBI contingent, they surrounded the bank with armed officers. At the same time, witnesses saw officers escorting a shirtless man from the bank, with his hands behind his back and in zip ties.

The bank's surveillance video system captured the moment when SWAT officers came into contact with Alavache in the bank. In the video, officers can be seen and heard on their body-worn cameras pleading with the suspect to surrender peacefully and that they wanted to work with him and for him to show them his hands.

However, SWAT officers who were observing Alavache saw that he was holding a hostage close to himself and started to put the hostage into what they described as a "head-lock," with his knife held to the victim's throat. At that point, a SWAT officer can be heard on the body-worn camera firing a single round at Alavache, killing him.

Officers feared for the lives of the hostages and opened fire only after exhausting all other options to secure their safe release. Both of the two hostages were unharmed and were safely removed from the bank when the suspect was shot and killed.

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Sen. Kennedy Just Levels Janet Yellen on Bidenomics and High Prices

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) has a genteel way when he starts questioning people. Then he proceeds to just rip them to shreds. In a nice way. It's always enjoyable to watch. He did it again when he was questioning Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about Bidenomics on Thursday.

"You're a good sport to go out every day and try to defend Bidenomics. It's like trying to defend a fungal infection. Bidenomics is really just paying more to live worse, isn't it?" Kennedy quipped. Then Kennedy asked her some very important questions about whether prices would be going down. I think it's safe to say that her answers were less than satisfying.

Kennedy said that if you don't get a pay raise, you're screwed. That's when Yellen stepped in it big time, saying we don't have to get the prices down if wages are going up. That made Kennedy's eyebrows go up. "We don't?" he said, incredulously. "You don't think we need to get these prices down?" You think it's okay that bacon is up 20 percent under Joe Biden, he asked. "Chicken is up 23.5 percent. Coffee is up 30 percent. Gas is up 44 percent."

He said used cars were up 24 percent, too. She kept insisting that "wages were up" but as he pointed out, they're not up 24 or 30 percent, generally.

That's the bottom line here. Just like the Biden team broke the border, their excessive spending contributed to this inflation. They either don't understand it or simply refuse to admit it. That's why they don't know how to solve it. They have no intention of bringing prices down or reining in their prolific spending.

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