Police Shoot Bank Robber, Ending 10-Hour Standoff
A 10-hour standoff involving two armed bank robbers ended Tuesday when police fatally shot one suspect and arrested the other, authorities said. Four hostages were unharmed.
The suspects had escaped the bank near Walt Disney World with one hostage Tuesday evening, but authorities cornered them in their getaway car, said Osceola County Sheriff Bob Hansell.
The male suspect then “used the hostage again as a shield to get into another vehicle,” Hansell said. “He tried to leave again, and at that point, he was taken down.”
Deputies had been using cellphones to negotiate with the suspects, a man and a woman wearing masks, wigs and coats.
The standoff at the Mercantile Bank, a mile west of Disney World, left some tourists confined to their hotels for much of the day.
The suspects held four hostages but released all but one by the time police blasted through the rear door of the bank using an explosive device.
The suspects then escaped with the hostage and drove away in a bank employee’s car, but traveled less than a mile before barricades stopped them.
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