Orlando - A police SWAT team stormed a Florida home before dawn yesterday, freeing two children unharmed and killing the criminal who had held them hostage since Tuesday. Cousins Malcolm Phillips (4) and Teddi Priest (2) were carried out of the house by police to be reunited with their mothers.
Police raided the home near downtown Orlando after hostage-taker John Edward Armstrong (39) fell asleep. A police officer threw himself on Armstrong to protect the children and was shot in the hand in the exchange of gunfire which led to Armstrong's death.