A police hunt for a Missouri couple wanted for a series of abductions and robberies across the South ended early Friday on the Florida Panhandle in a barrage of gunfire that left one of the suspects dead.
Law officials had tracked Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Harper, both 30, in the Pensacola area for several tense hours after an armed robbery there late Thursday. The couple managed to elude capture in a stolen vehicle, then on foot, and finally in another stolen vehicle.
The two were cornered overnight Friday in Milton, outside Pensacola. In an armed standoff, Fitzgerald was killed, Sheriff David Morgan of Escambia County said. Harper was wounded and taken to a hospital to treat injuries to her leg and ankle.
“Like most shooting incidents, what was a matter of seconds seemed like a matter of minutes,” Morgan said during a news conference Friday. “It occurred very, very quickly.”
Morgan praised what he characterized as a sprawling effort by law enforcement officials to catch the suspects of a crime spree that has dominated local news reports for days.
Fitzgerald and Harper, both from Joplin, Missouri, are suspected in a series of crimes that began Sunday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where, the authorities said, they kidnapped a hotel clerk and drove off with him in his car.
The clerk, Kyle Dease, told local reporters that the couple said they were trying to get to Panama City, Florida, where they planned to marry and start a new life.
“He goes, ‘Hey, I hate to do this but, I need you to give me all your money and I need you to give me your car keys,’” Dease said in an interview with the television station WBRC-TV.
What followed was a spree of abductions, home invasions and robberies across Alabama, Georgia and Florida, officials said. In each case, the victims were released unharmed, but the police warned that Fitzgerald and Harper were armed and could lash out if they felt threatened. The U.S. Marshals Service offered $10,000 for their capture.
About 8 p.m. Thursday, Florida authorities got a report of an armed robbery at a Famous Footwear store in Pensacola by two people whose descriptions matched that of Fitzgerald and Harper.
Witnesses also gave a description of their vehicle, which was discovered hours later abandoned in a driveway about five miles from the store. About 12:30 a.m. officials received word that the fugitives had entered a home, held its residents hostage and then fled in their red truck.
Shortly after, law enforcement caught up with the truck and cornered the suspects on a narrow residential road in Milton.
Fitzgerald and Harper refused to surrender, Morgan said, leading to an armed standoff that lasted about 15 minutes. The couple then left the vehicle and tried to enter an occupied home, Morgan said. Escambia County officers opened fire around 1 a.m.
Authorities declined to say whether Fitzgerald or Harper engaged the officers with a weapon. During the news conference Friday, asked to confirm reports that Fitzgerald had used Harper as a shield, Morgan paused for a moment, then said: “Yes. Yes.”