3-Day Hostage Standoff Ends With 2 Dead

A three-day standoff inside a suburban home ended Monday with the death of a hostage and the suicide of the murder suspect who began the ordeal, police said.

Authorities said the captor, Jamie Dean Petron, 41, killed himself with a shot to the chest and was found dead in the master bedroom. The hostage, Andrea Hall, 40, had been dead for several hours.

Hall, 40, might have been shot Sunday by police sharpshooters who fired into the home, said Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Jones.

It’s also possible she was hit when Petron fired at a police robot that entered the home Monday morning, Jones said.

“We are not going to leave out the possibility that a bullet came from law enforcement,” Jones said.

As many as five people had been held hostage inside the home since Saturday. Two children were released Sunday, and two others were freed Monday by police, shaken but unharmed.

“This was a very scary and intense situation,” Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said.

A SWAT team first entered the house around noon, Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Foreman said, and discovered Hall’s body in the kitchen.

Petron did not know the SWAT team was in the house while the officers quietly searched the residence for three hours, Foreman said. Petron was found dead about 3:15 p.m.

Petron, suspected in Friday’s shooting death of a Pompano Beach convenience store clerk, allegedly fled to the house Saturday after shooting a sheriff’s deputy in the leg as the deputy tried to arrest him.

He apparently did not know the people he took hostage in the home in the Meadow Woods subdivision, south of Orlando. The home belongs to Thelma Mills. Hall, her sister, was visiting the family.

About 20 homes in the subdivision were evacuated. Nearly a hundred federal, state and local law enforcement officers were stationed around the home, which is located less than 10 miles east of Walt Disney World.

Petron spoke with negotiators, but police had said they were concerned because of his broken promises and lack of demands. Police negotiators tried blaring sirens to keep him awake Monday and intermittently cut the power to the home.

After two children, Nicholas Hall, 8, and his 11-month-old sister, Nicolette, were released Sunday, Petron had said he would free the remaining hostages after the tape of a statement he made was aired. But Hall, Althea Mills, 16, and 9-month-old Daniquea Akoon remained in the house until Monday.

On the tape, Petron said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.

“All I can say is deep in my heart I am really apologetic. Don’t think I’m the devil. I’m not the devil,” he said.

After Petron stopped answering the phone early Monday, police used a robot to try to communicate with him.

Petron fired on the robot but missed, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Solomons said. Solomons said the robot recorded some of the hostages crying and one screaming “He’s going to kill me.”

Petron continued negotiating with police after a SWAT officer shot at him Sunday but missed.

Records show Petron was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1986 for attempted first-degree murder, forgery and battery on a law enforcement officer. He was released from prison in 1995.