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By BILLY TOWNSEND
The Tampa Tribune
LAKELAND - The shoulder-to-shoulder line of Central Florida SWAT officers, organized in closely linked teams of 10 or 11, stretched for hundreds of feet and slowly crept north toward Interstate 4.
Carrying MP5 submachine guns and other assault weapons, the officers hacked through vines and poked at every possible hiding place Friday in a dense patch of brush and woods that had become ground zero of the search for a man who killed a deputy.
Just after 9:30 a.m., one of the teams happened upon a large fallen oak tree. Dug in beneath it they found the man accused of ambushing and killing Deputy Matt Williams and his K-9 partner Diogi on Thursday.
“They were pretty much on top of him before they could see him,” Sheriff Grady Judd said.
In a flash, what probably was the most intensive manhunt in Polk County history reached its climax.
One officer, who hasn’t been identified, ordered the suspect to show his hands, Judd said. The suspect showed just one hand.
Then someone saw a gun in the other, and nine of 10 members of the team opened fire, killing the man in place with “numerous” shots, Judd said. It was less than 100 yards from where Williams and Diogi were killed.
The suspect had his right hand on Williams’ 45-caliber semiautomatic service handgun, investigators said.
About a half-mile away, at the command post near Kathleen High School, police radios began to crackle, and the news spread fast.
At one point Judd was heard on the radio saying, “Search is over. Suspect Signal Seven.” That’s police language for dead.
A cheer went up.
Within moments, Judd arrived to tell reporters, announcing, “God will be the judge and jury this time.”
2 Days, 2 Names
But who is the man upon whom the verdict was rendered?
The sheriff’s office provided a second possible identity for him in as many days.
Judd said detectives are certain that a man arrested in Polk County in 1999 under the name Angilo Freeland, 27, is the same man killed under the tree Friday.
They do not know if that’s the name on his birth certificate or the one he used most often. Angilo Freeland has ties to several Lakeland addresses, investigators said. None seems current.
A different name, Eswardo O. Ramclaim, was provided Thursday night - with warnings that it probably was bogus. It was the name the man gave Deputy Douglas Speirs when he stopped him for speeding at 10th Street and Wabash Avenue in north Lakeland.
Freeland was arrested in 1999 by the Florida Highway Patrol on charges that he had no driver’s license, fled from officers and had a concealed weapon.
The charges echo the circumstances of Thursday’s 11:45 a.m. traffic stop, from which Freeland bolted into a nearby wooded area.
By late afternoon Friday, crime scene technicians were working closely over Freeland’s body, which was to be sent to the medical examiner’s office. Judd said he expects a better identification to emerge.
In the meantime, Judd said, detectives are developing a picture of who Freeland was. They found no drugs in the rental car he was driving, but they think he has ties to a drug ring.
And Judd said two cell phones he dropped and a “book of associates” detectives found are providing a number of leads.
The Ambush
Judd provided more details Friday about what might have happened in the woods when Speirs, Williams and Diogi went in after Freeland as other deputies ringed the area.
It appears Williams and Diogi tracked Freeland almost too successfully and that the dense vegetation worked to their disadvantage.
“They had run him into an area so thick that he couldn’t move,” Judd said.
With nowhere left to run, Freeland holed up behind a tree in much the same fashion that he did Friday morning. And then he struck in what Judd called “an ambush.” Judd said Williams and Diogi were too good at their jobs to have been overcome by anything other than an ambush.
Detectives think Freeland used a 9 mm Taurus handgun to kill Williams and his dog. That gun also was found on Freeland after he was killed. Detectives still are not saying where Williams was hit, but they have said he was struck with several shots and likely died instantly.
Speirs was wounded in the leg shortly afterward in an exchange of fire, and the shooter fled.
Speirs was treated at a Lakeland hospital Thursday but not admitted. It wasn’t immediately clear which weapon Freeland used on Speirs or when he took Williams’ weapon.
However he did it, Freeland managed to kill a seasoned deputy and his highly trained K-9, take his gun and ammunition, wound another deputy and successfully elude capture in a fairly confined space for almost 24 hours.
It shows a capability of cool, tactical thinking, sheriff’s officials said.
“It makes you wonder,” said Gary Hester, sheriff’s office chief of staff, when asked whether detectives think Freeland might have received formal military training of some kind.
Hester said there is no evidence of that. But he said one source in the investigation says Freeland might have trained informally at a Lakeland gun range.
A Violent, Vital Confrontation
Judd said Friday that the key to getting Freeland was how quickly deputies and police officers sealed off both the wooded area and the wider swath of north Lakeland that remained locked down throughout the manhunt.
It helped that deputies were on scene backing up the search for Freeland when the shooting started.
Judd singled out the Lakeland Police Department for praise. He cited the agency’s quick arrival at Interstate 4, cutting Freeland’s access to the north.
He said two Lakeland police officers who exchanged gunfire with Freeland just after the deputies were shot might have staved off a worse crisis. They forced him back into the woods and away from an elderly couple’s home at 1446 Wabash Ave., the very northern end of the road.
“He would have got in there and hurt that couple and got himself a car,” Hester said.
On Friday, Paul Prebor, 76, the owner of the home, casually retold his brush with death and showed off bullet marks - one coming, one going - in the eaves of his outdoor laundry room and shed near the rear of his house.
Nearby, sheriff’s administrators picked up spent canisters of tear gas that still gave off enough odor to make eyes water. Officers had used them Thursday, thinking Freeland might have run from the gunfire into the house as Prebor and his wife fled.
The Prebors live several hundred yards north of the site of the traffic stop and even closer to the spot where Freeland was killed.
Paul Prebor said he didn’t hear the shooting of the deputies, but he quickly noticed the commotion that followed and came out to see what was going on. He saw officers with guns drawn telling him to go back inside, where his wife was, and lock his doors.
After a few moments informing neighbors, Prebor was preparing to go inside when Lakeland policeofficers Jeff Birdwell, a detective, and Jose Bosque pulled up.
They got out, Prebor said, and one asked a strange question: “Does that black man in your backyard have any reason to be there?”
‘He Was Tall’
Rather than answer, Prebor, who was facing away from his backyard, said he instinctively turned. He saw Freeland, gun drawn, run into the covered opening of the shed, step in front of a barbecue grill and open fire at him and the officers. They were standing about 75 yards away, near the street.
Prebor said he thinks Freeland fired twice and that the officers quickly fired twice in return. Lakeland police spokesman Jack Gillen, who identified the officers, said both got off rounds, but he did not know how many.
All the shots, from both sides, missed. Freeland bolted back into the Prebors’ backyard. Prebor rushed to retrieve his wife, who was in the kitchen behind an open window, and take her across the street to a neighbor’s home.
Prebor said he saw Freeland for about three seconds.
“It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to be scared. I’m not that emotional about things,” he said.
His impression of Freeland? “I thought he was tall.”
That’s accurate. Freeland’s Polk arrest record lists him at 6-foot-2. At least one of his bullets struck the inside eave of the shed on its way out, splintering wood and perhaps altering the path of the bullet.
Though officers weren’t able to nab or kill Freeland there, they managed to push him away from the area where he might most easily have found hostages and likely back into the brush, sheriff’s officials said.
“We felt confident that he hadn’t gotten out of there,” Hester said. “We felt he was pinned down.”
They were confident enough that Thursday night the SWAT leaders from the various agencies on scene began to plan the meticulous search of the woods that would find Freeland on Friday morning.
They would find and kill him within sight of Prebor’s home.
Editor Dave Nicholson contributed to this report. Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.
UNFOLDING EVENTS
Thursday
11:45 a.m.: Deputy Douglas Speirs pulls over a driver for speeding at 10th Street and Wabash Avenue. The driver runs into dense woods northwest of the traffic stop scene. Backup deputies arrive to surround the area. After several minutes, Speirs, Deputy Vernon Matthew “Matt” Williams and his dog partner, Diogi, go into the woods.
12:30 p.m.: The driver fires at the deputies, killing Williams and Diogi. Speirs is wounded in the leg. The shooter flees.
About 1 p.m.: As deputies and police begin swarming the area, the man is seen in the backyard of a home at 1446 N. Wabash. He exchanges fire with two Lakeland police officers. No one is hit. The man disappears again.
4 p.m.: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announces Williams and Diogi are dead. A massive manhunt spreads across much of north Lakeland.
About 7 p.m.: Students from nearby Kathleen High School are taken by bus, under armed guard, to a north Lakeland church, where parents finally are allowed to pick them up.
9 p.m.: Judd gives his final briefing of the night and warns, “We’re prepared for a gunfight if he wants a gunfight.”
Friday
9:35 a.m.: A patrol of SWAT officers walking shoulder to shoulder near the scene of the shootings happens upon the driver, who had buried himself beneath a fallen tree overgrown with brush. The man raises only one hand. The officers, seeing a gun, open fire, killing the man. Moments later a cheer is heard at the law enforcement command center near Kathleen High.
9:50 a.m.: Judd announces suspect is dead. He was carrying a .45-caliber handgun thought to be Williams’ service weapon.
Troy Jenkins-
Get a clue dope, he was pulled over for speeding and then he gave them a fake ID. He wasnt pulled over for being black he was pulled over for breaking the law, all this crap about cops profiling black males is b.s. Dont break the law if you dont want to be punished for it. This man was scum and deserved what he got, im just sorry a child and wife lost their father/husband because this man was doing his job and paid the ultimate price because some people have no respect! Think before you open ur mouth Tony cause u got it all wrong here bud.
I JUST WANT TO THANK THE POLICE THAT STAYED OUT THERE ALL NIGHT LOOKING FOR THIS GUY THEY DID A GREAT JOB MOST OF THEM DONT GET PAID ALOT TO DO THERE JOB BUT THEY STILL DO IT KNOWING THAT ANY DAY COULD BE THERE LAST AGIAN THANK YOU SORRY TO THE FAMILY OF MR WILLIAMS
Are some of you *trying* to make this a racial issue??? I don’t see it. This guy (black, white, hispanic, klingon… doesn’t matter) killed two cops and wounded another. He took shots at a Detective. When they did find him they asked to see his hands. He Only showed one. The opened fire. For those of you questioning if this was the right response, consider the outcome: they found the slain officer’s gun in his other hand. Enough! They did the right thing. Period.
Sadie, I am not trying to harp on you alone in this forum, but your comment about the ‘white mans world’ must be cleared up. The fact that you would even bring race into this case indicates your own under-lying false assumptions about white people. Lets get the facts straight here - this man shot and killed a police officer, his dog, and was wanted under several different alias’s. It is an appeasement mind set which only negates true justice from moving forward and pro-longs criminal activity. The formula for solving this type of matter is actually quite simple-you committ a hanous crime, you will be brought to justice. This sort of ideal carries no underlying racial preferences, it a fair and effective means of bringing forth ALL individuals no matter what their race. Remember, nobody ‘made’ this man committ this crime. People must be held people accountable for their actions in life for laws to ever be made sensical, just as you would teach a young child right from wrong.
If you are one of those idiots whining about the maggot that was shot to death by the police, please tell us how you would heroically go into the brush by yourself and talk this maggot into surrendering without hurting anyone else. You know better and your racism is only exceeded by your ignorance. Get a life.
although i am agnostic (the only logical religious outlook), i seem to have somewhat the same outlook as so-called ‘followers of god’. i truly believe in the ‘eye for an eye’ saying. the bastard deserved it. he killed a man for no reason, and got killed. good. but what i think is kinda funny is bringin god into it. last time i checked, i think wrath/anger was a sin. and what happened to the “every life is special” talk? does that only pertain to unborn humans?
Andy Mah - Your commentary is ignorant as well because the culture of law enforcement is not the issue here. Regardless of how the officer engaged the suspect, the suspect broke the law by fleeing the scene and committed a crime against humanity and our criminal justice system. Some commentary offers condolences to the families of the fallen officers. Some commentary condemns the split second decision the SWAT officers had to make. Some commentary uplifts the bravery and justice served. Your commentary is totally out in left field.
It might be a good thing to set up an account for the slain police officer’s family. This is done for victims of crime, what about him.
I have a few problems with cops in general. I think they are too quick to use deadly force in many situations where it’s not warranted and are not held accountable at all beyond the whitewash investigation that never finds a cop at fault. After reading this report however I think they were justified if the facts are as presented.
Statistics I’ve read say that over 85% of police officers killed or wounded in the line of duty occur in a traffic stop. Chaulk up another sad statistic.
One less cockroach to breathe this precious air of ours.
Great police work, indeed…..
Way to go Lakeland police department!!!!!!!!!!!! Justice was served regardless of the RACE. Our deepiest sympathy for the family of Deputy Williams they have suffered two loses our prayers are with them!!!
Tony: I am not sure we read the same thing, I am pretty sure that it wasnt the first officer on scene that was killed it was the officer that came for back up. If i am worng i apologize, but that is what i read. And what about the 3 or 4 cops he shot at from behind a house? No one ever said in anyhting that i have read that all cops were good ones and they neve do any wrong, so it is the good cops that pay for the bad ones doing? Is that what you are saying?
Imagine yourself walking up to an automobile, at a traffic stop. As a liberal, what would YOU do when confronted with a man like this evil-seed? What do you say to the slain officers’ family? Who is defending your home now, or what would you do - if you met someone just like this guy at your local gas station tonight? You can’t go back and examine his childhood, when he’s about to shoot you—and a man that’s already killed a police officer (that could be the man defending you, at some point and responding to your call for help) is a deadly person, wouldn’t you agree?
Thank God for our good police officers. The real shame of it all is losing one of these fine men because a piece of garbage realized the party was over and opted to kill instead of going to jail. Evil does exist folks right in our own back yard. Don’t ever think otherwise. True evil like this piece of trash only understands one thing: Deadly force can only be met with deadly force.
Guys get over it we all have a bit of racism in us. Never said he was right for killing anyone, so get over it!
What’s up with all these blind cop lovin dopes on here? If the guy killed the cops without provocation (which we’ll NEVER know) then good, we got rid of him. But this blind loyalty to one of the most corrupt and abusive professions in America is extreme. Cops lie and distort routinely. If you are not aware, the law condones cops lying and distorting, it is part of the culture or the profession. And you lemmings think they are always right? Grow up!
That police office would have been alive if he had called for backup and not fall into the “get the black male trap”. The same thing happened in Orlando. When are these white police officers gonna learn? I bet $30 he was profiling too, both people lost in this situation. Don’t worry these situations are just a start in the forever battle between cops and black men….what cops is next. Sad but true. PS: Call for backup white cops and stop trying to be Rambo and think you are gonna teach someone a lesson, you are not cause many people have nothing to lose and don’t shed a tear shooting at you as evidence of this. Please call for backup.
It does not matter if he was white, black, yellow, or green with pink polka dots. He WAS an animal, He shot police ans fled. This was intentional. We do not have to support him in a jail cell for 30 or more years at 40,000 a year.
“Justice” is not true “justice” it is prosocuters getting points for convictions, when defendants are shown to be innocent.
I congratulate the cops that did all they could to find this man. Job well done! I am also very sorry to all the family/friends that have been affected by these deaths. Yes, even to the loved ones of the criminal. Even though he was a killer, it still hurts to lose someone. I hope that the Williams family can find happiness in knowing that Matt was loved well enough for this to be taken care of as quickly as it was. Thank you to all the officers that helped. Because of people like you, I can feel safe.
Mike Moanhard - I would gladly lock a dude like you in a 10x10 cell w/ a guy like this and see what you think of justice, but it would cost the taxpayers too GD much money. Gun control is actually the moot point here, because this filthy criminal stole the .45 from the Deputy he murdered. Wake up and smell the coffee - err, I mean tea.
Sadie Anderson - I’m pretty sure if you kill a cop and hide in the bushes, when found, you’re gonna catch a beatdown at best regardless of whether you’re black, white, red, or yellow. Don’t be IGNORANT and make this a race issue.
Foolish people with ignorant answers…If this man deserved to die then so does everyman that brings death to another…What about the girl who ran over those babies on 22nd street in Tampa then ran from the scene??? Where was their justice…lawlessness was shown on all sides of this thing…and lawlessness begats a lawless society…and for those of you who think that this man makes the streets safer???Get Real…Someone just got killed while im writing this letter…This is not for those of you who breathe vengeance, but for those of you who talk about Jesus, God, and prayers ignorantly…rememeber Jesus taught us to come at violence with love May prayers go out to all the families of those who were affected by this event included the family of the quote unquote scum bag…
It is unfortunate that a small group of your readers interpret the characterization as judge, jury and executioner as factually accurate. Even if it were this suspect against 1,000 law officers, which one would you suggest go first and be the sacrificial lamb. Pay attention folks, if he wasn’t planning on fighting it out, all he had to do was strip naked and walk out with his hands raised. It is always a tragedy when someone is killed in a confrontation with the police but this person brought it on himself. Finally, to the guy from the UK, mind your own business.
Once again I am sure that the pro-people are going to make this out to be a very BIG ordeal. I am glad it is done and over there are going to be alot of people sleeping better tonight. For those who think that this was wrong, if it was your husband or son that this happened to, how easily would you sit in the court room saying to him “I forgive you for killing my one true love, my only son, or my dad” Think about it, ONLY if he repented before the shots reached him will he be forgiven. I am not sure someone who can cold blood kill like that cares to be forgiven and will sit on the right hand of the devil in HELL! Never make comments like that till YOU, yourself has walked this mile in these families shoes. Or even the officers boots What do you think he was saying as he was gasping for that last breath? “God please watch over my family as I will do from your house.” I also think that they should take the $40,000 split it between the two familes they will need it now.
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Posted by Michele Lopez, Riverview on 09/29 at 01:22 PM
Andy Mah,
BLAH,BLAH,BLAH
To say that ALL cops are corrupt, is like saying that ALL people are jerks like you.