“Talk to me. Let me know what’s going through your head right now.”  Those words were spoken by a police hostage negotiator as a sharpshooter lined up to take a shot. Their goal? To neutralize a bank robber turned hostage taker in Lee County, Florida. In fact, those words must have marked the negotiator’s signal to take the shot as Sterling Alavache held a knife to a woman’s throat.

The bad guy tried to use a computer monitor to hide from police. He soon learned the difference between cover and concealment as moments later, the suppressed .308 barked softly. The round ended the threat, leaving blood and tissue adorning the back wall.

Sterling collapsed like a sack of ‘taters and the hostages scurried for cover as cops deployed flash bangs in case the shot didn’t work as intended.

However the shot was near-perfect. Alavache never heard or saw the flashbangs.

Thankfully the hostages were largely uninjured, save the hearing loss from the flash bangs.

WATCH: Harrowing video shows moment sniper shoots through computer monitor and in between 2 hostages, taking out hostage-taker at Florida bank pic.twitter.com/jt2anv3fo0

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 9, 2024

WINK has more, including the name of the police lieutenant who took the shot.

On Saturday, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office released a graphic new video from an attempted bank robbery turned deadly.

A SWAT sniper shot and killed the suspect Sterling Alavache, while he held two hostages at knifepoint.

This happened back in February at the Bank of America at Bell Tower. A warning: some of the video is graphic, and viewer discretion is advised.

Just before taking his shot, The sniper now identified as Lieutenant Paul Nader rested his gun on the shoulder of one of his teammates, but blocking Lieutenant Nader’s shot of Alavache was a computer monitor.

The Lee County Sheriffs Office has also released another angle of the moment lieutenant Nader fired the shot.

The moment right after the shot, the two hostages can be seen running for cover, the suspect on the floor and a gaping hole in the computer monitor seen just moments ago.

Second later, The SWAT team swarms inside, jumping the desk and releasing a flash bang.

The hostages now free, and Alavache, dead on the floor.

Lieutenant Nader was honored for his bravery on June 5 with both the Deputy of the Quarter award and the Meritorious Service award. One of the hostages was there to thank him personally.

Outstanding shot, lieutenant. Shooting off someone’s shoulder isn’t easy, especially when no-shoot targets are only inches away from the intended freedom pill recipient.  Particularly when the bad guy keeps moving and using a computer monitor to obstruct the line-of-sight view.