Followup - long read but interesting
SWAT teams shot suspect with 68 bullets
The Polk County sheriff says they fired 110 times at the man who 'executed' a deputy.
Gary Taylor and Kelly Griffith
Sentinel Staff Writers
October 1, 2006
Face to face with an armed man suspected of killing a Polk County deputy sheriff, SWAT officers riddled his body with 68 bullets.
Altogether, nine officers fired 110 times Friday at Angilo Freeland, who Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said "executed" one of his deputies.
"That's all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more," Judd said after autopsy results were released Saturday.
The slain deputy, Matt Williams, 39, was shot eight times Thursday when he encountered the killer who had fled into nearby woods after a routine traffic stop.
One bullet was fired at close range behind the deputy's right ear and another was fired near his right temple, with the muzzle of the gun pressing against his skin, the autopsy showed.
"I am confident that he was ambushed and he was executed," Judd said.
Freeland, 27, was driving a rental car when he was pulled over. Deputy Doug Speirs asked for his drivers license but was handed a fake ID.
Several shots were fired at Speirs as he ran after Freeland, and one bullet struck the deputy's leg, authorities said.
Williams and his German shepherd police dog, Diogi, went into the wooded area looking for the suspect.
After examining the shooting scene, Judd said he thinks Freeland waited behind a large uprooted tree, where it was "virtually impossible to see him."
"I suspect he shot the K-9 first," Judd said. A single bullet killed the dog when it hit him in the chest, a necropsy determined.
Bullets hit Williams in the arms, legs and buttocks, and one lodged in his spine. Though the sequence of the shots has not been determined, it is likely the final two shots were fired into the deputy's head as the gunman stood over him.
Williams was armed with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and had extra magazines of ammunition on his belt, Judd said.
"After he executed the deputy, he [Freeland] took his firearm and the magazines," Judd said.
Two Lakeland police officers exchanged gunfire with Freeland as he apparently tried to reach a nearby house, Judd said.
"I am confident that he was going to that house and that he would have taken them hostage or maybe that he would have killed them," he said.
Judd said the Lakeland officers risked their lives when they "turned him back into the woods."
Taking no chances
With helicopters circling overhead, officers ringed the wooded area and maintained a perimeter throughout the night. They thought he was still in the woods, but Judd admitted Saturday that "we never knew for sure."
The killer was considered so dangerous, Judd wanted only highly trained SWAT officers to enter the woods.
"We were not taking any more chances," he said. SWAT teams totaling 300 officers from across the region answered the call.
A group of 10 -- officers from the Polk, Lake and Marion sheriff's offices, Lakeland Police Department and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission -- walked shoulder to shoulder, scouring the area.
"The underbrush and woods were thicker than you could ever imagine," Judd said. As one of the officers pulled some brush aside, they spotted Freeland, who was hiding in a hole under a fallen tree perhaps 200 yards from where Williams had been killed.
"They were standing on top of him," Judd said.
Nine of the 10 officers fired when they saw Freeland raise his right hand clutching a gun they would later learn belonged to the slain deputy.
Deputies also found a Taurus 9 mm handgun, which friends told deputies Freeland often carried tucked in his waistband. In one of the pockets of his cargo pants was a magazine of ammunition taken from Williams, Judd said.
Not first brush with law
Although Freeland used many aliases, authorities finally identified him through fingerprints.
Freeland had been arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol in 1999 on charges of not having a valid drivers license, reckless driving, aggravated fleeing to elude, resisting arrest without violence and carrying a concealed weapon.
A trust fund has been set up at Wachovia Bank to assist Williams' widow and three children.
Any Wachovia branch in Polk County will accept donations, or checks may be mailed to the "Matt Williams Family Trust Fund" at Wachovia Bank, c/o Marilyn Watson, 203 Ave. A, Winter Haven, FL 33881.
Gary Taylor can be reached at
gtaylor@orlandosentinel.com or 407-324-7293. Kelly Griffith can be reached at
kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.
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