State: Officer's bullet killed hostage, police say

Officer's bullet killed hostage, police say

The Orlando police sniper who fired into the home is on paid leave while FDLE investigates.

By Compiled from Times wires

ORLANDO -- A police sniper fired the shot that killed a woman held hostage by a murder suspect during a three-day standoff, authorities said Tuesday.

The sniper was aiming for hostage-taker Jamie Dean Petron when Andrea Hall, 40, was hit, said Orlando police Chief Jerry Demings. Demings would not discuss details of the shooting, which the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.

The Orlando police officer who fired the shot, Christopher J. Savard, 34, an 81/2-year veteran who had been a certified sniper for more than two years, was placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.

Savard was operating under well-known "rules of engagement," Demings said.

"Our rules . . . in this case were that if our sniper had an opportunity to end this ordeal . . . where a dangerous person had been holding people hostage . . . to end it and to include the use of deadly force," Demings said.

Demings met privately with Hall's family Tuesday to express the department's sympathy.

Orange County Medical Examiner Sashi Gore said Hall died of a "through-and-through gunshot wound to the chest." She died about 11:40 a.m. Sunday, consistent with the time the sniper fired. Shortly after she was killed, Petron released her children.

Gore said Hall died instantly of internal bleeding after the bullet passed through her body and severely damaged her right lung. Not answered was the question of whether she was hit directly, or whether the bullet may have first passed through a door between the garage and the kitchen of the house where Hall and her two children were staying.

Hall's ex-husband, Karl, said the family is relieved to hear the department's explanation.

"We are happy to know that it has finally come out," Hall said. He said he suspected the worst since he heard news reports of a shooting Sunday, and since Petron called an Orlando TV station to accuse the police of killing Hall.

Petron told police negotiators on Sunday afternoon that they shot someone when the sniper fired into the home, but authorities said he refused to let them into the house or give up the injured hostage.

Demings said Petron also threatened to hurt the other hostages, four children ranging from 9 months to 16 years old, if authorities tried to enter the home. The 51-hour standoff ended Monday afternoon with Petron's suicide. The children were not injured.

Andrea Hall's children, Nicholas, 8, and Nicolette, 11 months, were released about three hours after she was shot.

"He understands what happens," Carl Hall said of Nicholas. "He said the man that held him hostage put a towel over his head so he couldn't see his mother because the police had shot his mom."

Also taken hostage were Andrea Hall's niece, Althea Mills, 16, and her grandniece, 9-month-old Daniquea Akoon. Petron was wanted for killing a Broward County convenience store clerk and shooting an Orange County deputy in the leg when he burst into the home of Hall's sister.

Homeowner Thelma Mills and her 28-year-old son Norman West escaped from the home minutes after Petron barged in. Petron shot West in the face during a brief struggle then allowed him to crawl from the home.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary, whose department had led the operation, said Petron's state of mind made it difficult to save the hostages. "Make no mistake that subject Petron was not only suicidal, but homicidal, and that is coming from all the experts," Beary said.

The FDLE said a report on the shooting will be sent to the Orange County State Attorney's Office.

Petron called Central Florida News 13, a cable channel, after the sniper fired and told them that a hostage was dead. Petron said police shot the woman as she was getting doughnuts.

"And I have these kids here without a mother," Petron told a news director.

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-- Information from the Orlando Sentinel and Associated Press was used in this report.