Florida Civil Rights Association complain that the police had shown disregard for human life when they shot Angilo Freeland after an all-night manhunt.
Now for the story.
On 28 September 2006, Polk County Deputy Doug Speirs pulled over a speeding car driven by Angilio Freeland. Deputy Speirs was handed a false drivers license by Freeland. The Deputy felt something was not right and called for back up.
Deputy Matt Williams and his K-9 dog "DiOGi" arrived on scene.
Freeland thought things weren't going well at this point and broke away for the officers and ran into the woods.
Ironically, the traffic stop that escalated into Freeland's running into the woods could have gone another way if Freeland had known that a warrant that had been issued in 1999 for,not having a valid drivers license, reckless driving,aggravated fleeing to elude,resisting arrest without violence, and carrying a concealed weapon, had been dropped in 2005.
Deputys Willaims and Speirs split up and entered the woods in search of Freeland. Williams and his K-9 closed in on Feeland's hiding place, Freeland shot the K-9 in the chest and close range killing him. He then shot Deputy Williams wounding him in the right wrist, left bicep, rear left thigh, right leg, right buttock, and upper right arm. One of the shots had penetrated the officer's spine. Freeland approached the immobilized officer and placed two shots into the head of Deputy William's head at point blank range.
Deputy Speirs who heard the shots, moved toward the sound of the gunfire and was also shot by Freeland. After exchanging fire, the Deputy was wounded in the leg but managed to radio for help.
All units that were available arrived on scene. Freeland appeared at the edge of the woods and once again opened fire on the officers before disappearing into the woods.
Later that afternoon the body of Deputy Williams, a father of three was carried out.
It was not till the next morning that Freeland was located and a gun battle erupted. Freeland was killed in the shootout. Nine of the 10-member SWAT team fired on Freeland, hitting him 68 times of 110 shots.
Asked by the media why Freeland was shot 68 times, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said,"That's all the bullets we had or we would have shot him more. Quite frankly, we weren't taking any chances."
In June of 2oo8, the U.S.Department of Justice announced it had cleared the Polk County Sheriff's Office of any wrong doing.
Sometimes the system does work.
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