They referred to the couple as a modern-day “Bonnie & Clyde”, although Fitzgerald and Harper had robbed no banks and had not shot anyone.
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When it was over, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan, reluctantly admitted Fitzgerald used his girlfriend Harper as a shield from police bullets.
Officers shot and killed her boyfriend, Blake Edward Fitzgerald, in the shootout, after he used her as a human shield when police opened fire, according to officials.
The couple allegedly committed crimes in Missouri, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Fitzgerald was reportedly killed, and Harper was injured and taken to a local hospital.
“Actually, it scares me a little more because the way they acted with Kyle”, the clerk said of what her co-worker told her of his encounter. The couple managed to elude capture in a stolen vehicle, then on foot, and finally in another stolen vehicle.
Authorities believe Fitzgerald then entered a home while the family was present, displayed a handgun and stole the family’s Ford Edge in Vestavia Hills, forcing the wife to go with him in the stolen vehicle against her will.
“Thankfully, no innocent member of the public has been physically harmed by this modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, but the couple is armed and unsafe, and has a history of violent crimes and a string of new charges”, said U.S. Marshal Martin Keely of the Northern District of Alabama before the standoff with police.
The armed robbery of a Famous Footwear in Pensacola led to a five-hour pursuit beginning about about 8 p.m. Thursday. Within minutes, the chase was on again as the couple exited on to Interstate 10 east and traveled across Escambia Bay and into Santa Rosa County.
Authorities say it ended in a shootout between the suspects and law enforcement officers near Garcon Point in Milton, Fla. State Attorney Bill Eddins says that Escambia County is “Gonna keep her”, and may not give her up for extradition to Missouri, Alabama or Georgia, but that is yet to be sorted out. Investigators say he and Brittany Nicole Harper drove south about 15 miles on I-75 before releasing the teen who was frightened but otherwise unharmed. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting.
By mid-week, they are believed to have made it to Florida where investigators say they are connected to two robberies in Walnut Hills and Destin.
Fitzgerald and Harper, both 30, were wanted in connection to crimes, including kidnapping, that had occurred in at least three states.
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The crime spree began Sunday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with the alleged kidnapping of a hotel clerk, who was released 60 miles away and his stolen vehicle abandoned.
