Story highlights The Missouri couple, both 30, traded gunfire with law enforcement in Escambia County, Florida

They were accused of committed crimes across Alabama, Georgia and Florida

Blake Edward Fitzgerald, 30, was killed and Brittany Nicole Harper, also 30, is in custody

(CNN) One half of the Missouri couple police say is responsible for a multistate crime spree is dead, and the other is in custody after an overnight standoff with Florida law enforcement officers.

Blake Edward Fitzgerald, 30, was shot and killed by Escambia County Sheriff's deputies early Friday after a police chase, according to Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan. Brittany Nicole Harper, also 30, the woman who police believe was working with Fitzgerald, was wounded in the standoff and is in police custody, Morgan said.

The pair were characterized by media and law enforcement as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde -- after the infamous Depression-era outlaws. Fitzgerald and Harper were accused of going on a spree that included kidnappings and robberies in Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement.

The crime spree began Sunday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, according to the U.S. Marshals, when the couple allegedly kidnapped a hotel clerk, stole his car and drove to Vestavia Hills, Alabama, about 60 miles away.

There, according to law enforcement, the couple released the hostage but entered a home and took a new one -- the woman who lived there.

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