SWAT teams shot suspect with 68 bullets (2006)

Orlando Sentinel ^ | October 1, 2006 | Gary Taylor and Kelly Griffith

[packrat01]

The Polk County sheriff says they fired 110 times at the man who `executed' a deputy.

October 1, 2006|By Gary Taylor and Kelly Griffith, Sentinel Staff Writers

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.

[School of Rational Thought]

suspect was in a hole

[Joe Boucher]

I remember reading about this when it happened.
I also remember the Polk County Sheriff’s statement that we shot him 68 times because that was all the bullets on them at the time.
I thought, good, no claims of police brutality or some lawyer finding a loophole.
Same we should do with terrorists.

[School of Rational Thought]

“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.

[Vaquero]

He was leaving an apartment house. He was an illegal from Africa. He saw the cops....thought they were after him for being there illegal and reached for his documents in a nervous fashion. They were after someone else.

[riverrunner]

Exactly shooting at anything in thick cover is totally different then shooting on a open range. Brush trees dirt all can deflect or absorb bullets.

Strange things can happen to bullets on the way to their target when shooting through cover.

[faucetman]

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more

Beat me to it! In the case of an officer “executed” I agree.

Dogs, no. Unarmed car thieves shot in the back, no. Innocent passenger sitting in a car with a perp, no.

The examples above were executions by POLICE, but in this case it was justified.

AND, in THIS case, I don’t care if the perp raised a gun or not, had a gun on him or not.

This WAS the guy that executed TWO LEOs. He deserved whatever he got.

[faucetman]

Ditto. Interesting story I had not heard. Timely because of what is happening to cops these days. Well worth the posting now.

[Doogle]

I remember seeing this on Fox...and remember the quote. Remembered the K-9 being hit.....

[556x45]

It does especially considering after the first couple of lethal hits he’s inert. Basically they’re beating ‘a dead horse’. Makes you wonder, it really does. It goes well beyond poor training to something basically wrong with the mental and moral state of the officers involved.

If it ever comes to confiscation of personal weapons these are some of the guys who will be participating.

[Reno89519]

Sounds like an execution. Further, did emotion impact accuracy or are they really such bad shots?

[visualops]

back in the early 80’s in NYC, my ex was waiting in the ER at Belleview hospital (he cut his hand open at work). There was a guy there, also waiting, who had been shot 6 times. My ex waited about 3 hours for a doctor, not sure how long the other guy was there.

[PapaBear3625]

If the cops needed in this case....68 rounds to take down the guy...he must have been mighty powerful to keep going forward and need more rounds to take him down.

They wanted to make sure that a "jury of his peers" would not decide that killing a cop was "justifiable homicide".

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Cute that you want to make a statement critical of the actions of the police regarding this incident. In my view their response was not surprising at all, and had they been under my supervision they would have been commended for assuring that the scumbag was definitely DEAD.

[zek157]

Why is a LEO any different than any other citizen/victim Are you supporting a different standard and level of concern?

This mentality is another paver in the road to lawlessness.

[zek157]

yeap, there’s the problem.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Sure you do, it’s a timely hit piece on cops and guns to provide some credibility for the haters of both. e.g., HRC, BLM, etc., etc.

[klgator]

I live in Polk County, and we are proud of Sheriff Grady Judd. Here are some of his quotes over time:

“You kill a policeman it means no arrest, no Miranda rights, no negotiations, nothing but as many bullets as we can shoot into you, PERIOD,” said Polk County Florida Sheriff Grady Judd. Frontier justice, a cowboy attitude? No, simply one lawman’s response to cop-killing by illegals in Ameica.

Three brothers and their friend were facing first-degree murder charges.They allegedly took pictures of the victim's lifeless body, but the photos were believed to be stored away and locked on one of the suspect's phone."Let me tell you, the first time we do have trouble getting into a cell phone, we're going to seek a court order from Apple and when they deny us I'm going to go lock the CEO of Apple up."

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd wasted no time taking a jab at a career criminal who had taunted him on Facebook. Sheriff Judd took to Facebook Friday to announce the arrest of Cedric Carr, of Mulberry, in a slightly different way.
“It’s not usually a good idea to taunt the Sheriff’s Office on Facebook. Yes Cedric Carr, we stopped your show…” wrote Sheriff Judd on Facebook.

“Forcing your way into an occupied residence is a bold and foolish decision — if you are foolish enough to break into someone’s home, you can expect to be shot in Polk County,” Sheriff Grady Judd said.

A man in Colorado a couple of months ago published a book called The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure, and he didn't get arrested for it, and this made Grady Judd mad.So the sheriff of Polk County, whose job is to protect and serve the roughly 500,000 people who live in the mostly agricultural area between Tampa and Orlando, had one of his undercover detectives contact Phillip Greaves of Pueblo, Colo., and ask to buy his book. Greaves sent a signed copy back to Polk, where Judd got a search warrant, and then sent two of his men 1,856 miles to arrest him the week before Christmas.

President Barack Obama’s announcement that he’d commuted the sentences of 61 convicted felons across the country has one Florida sheriff crying foul.
“As your Sheriff, I am appalled that convicted felons are being let out of prison before finishing their sentences,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd wrote on Facebook.

Florida sheriff under fire for preaching in uniform. Judd spoke from the pulpit of First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland two months ago.
"Wouldn't the world be better if everyone behaved like a Christian?" Judd said as part of his speech.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation sent Judd a letter accusing him of "excluding other religions and making non-believers feel like outsiders in their own community."
Judd says he was invited to the church and that his message was "clear and uplifting."

Sheriff Grady Judd is urging residents in his county to arm up, stressing that it is "more important to have a gun in your hand than a cop on the phone."

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said today he brought both girls, ages 14 and 12, into custody because he saw a lack of remorse. He pointed to a Facebook post allegedly written over the weekend by the 14-year-old suspect that said, "'Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don't give a f---." This was after a young girl committed suicide after being bullied.

“If you surrender peacefully, that’s the way we prefer it,” he said. “You start pointing guns at us, you can not only plan on, but you can guarantee that we are going to shoot you.”

Grady Judd on Freedom of the Press

[ExGeeEye]

Personally I prefer the formality of a trial. Silly me :)

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Cute.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Of course if we bugger the law enough and it gets AIDS we will never blame ourselves.