POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – Witnesses shared videos recorded when the chase of a bank robbery suspect ended with him dead after a crash, a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies-involved shooting, and a fire on Monday in Pompano Beach.
Sheriff Gregory Tony said a man had been involved in a robbery at a TD Bank branch along Federal Highway in Oakland Park and a BSO aviation unit and several deputies were involved in the pursuit.
Tony said the man crashed into a concrete pole at about 10:30 a.m., in the area of East Atlantic Boulevard and Northeast Fourth Avenue, and four deputies fired at him.
“[He] got out of the vehicle, [and] presented a firearm towards our deputies,” Tony said on Monday.
Dino Standjofski said he was in the kitchen of his apartment when he heard the loud car crash and saw several deputies arrive quickly after. He said he heard the deputies ordering the driver to get out.
“He shot back. I don’t think he was giving up,” Standjofski said about the bank robbery suspect.
There was a standoff that witnesses said lasted for about eight minutes, and the car was on fire.
“It appears he set the car on fire while he was inside,” Tony said.
BSO did not release the identities of the man who was accused of the bank robbery or of the four deputies who were relieved of duty pending the results of the investigation. Tony described heroic actions.
“Our deputies went in there and extracted him out of the car while it was on fire and actually tried to perform life-saving techniques to get him to survive,” Tony said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement routinely investigates police shootings and the FBI deals with bank robberies.
Local 10 News Reporter Roy Ramos contributed to this report on Monday.