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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.
Absolutely no one is responsible for your actions but you!!! Not your parents, not your teachers, not police officers, or anyone else. If you choose to commit crimes, prepare to pay the price - whatever that price may be. I have no sympathy for this criminal!!! His family, yes, because they are probably grieving right now - and even if they were not good examples, or raised this person in an environment that taught him a life of crime - they did not pull the trigger!!! He did, and he paid the price. Fortunately we, the taxpayers, don’t have to feed him for years, provide him with weight lifting equipment and recreation, a television, medical care, etc. and then pay for his defense attorney and trial, all adding up to millions of dollars. No technicalities or loopholes for him to get off on!!! Good job SWAT Team! Good job all of the officers!
job well done - too bad all killers, rapists, child predators and crooked politicians dont get the same swift justice!
It is a shame that this individual killed a dedicated family man and also killed one of his best friend’s, the dog, who was most likely trying to protect the fallen officer.
The suspect was an evil man who deserved what he got.
The reason certain radial pundants want their say is because THEY TOO are insecure with the image of a black male who does not represent the prototype of the average American black male. He looks like vermin, acted like vermin, and as a correction officer on Long Island, I can say without hesitation that he prsented himself like vermin. He predestined his own fate. Our tolerance as hard working Americans, black and white, is running out as we speak. Beware vermin-we;re coming after you and the traitors in the ACLU won’t be there to save you.
Lets not call him the “unnamed” man, he had 3 diff. names he went by, prob. stolen identities. He was simply a murderer, criminal, scum of the earth. All you CAN do IS spit on his grave MR TX because you cannot change evil people like that. Glad no Tax $ will be wasted on a trial.
*My condolences go out to Mrs. Williams and her children.
First, our prayers go out to the families that were affected by this. It is really amazing that we have so many ignorant people that really think this man deserved a question before he was shot. He gave up that right when he killed an officer and his partner. I have an immediate family member that works for the PCSO and he leaves every day not knowing what he is going to encounter. We don’t know if he will even make it home..so what right do you have questioning the decisions that were made today.This man put many lives at risk.Obviously, you have never walked in their shoes or anyone’s close to an officer.If this was your family, you might think differently! Also,to the ignorant people that make this a racial issue..these cops put their life on the line every day for everybody, whatever your race might be.GET OVER IT. And to the UK idiot, criminals will get guns whether we have laws or not and many times will kill to get them. One just did. Thanks to all LE and God Bless them all.
To Sheila Hutchence comments. This man would not suffer in our jails. They live better in jail than on the streets. They have TV, breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. They can go to school, work out etc.. And than they let them out! Statistics show they just commit another crime. I am glad our police officers got him. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families. I believe our police officers did what was right. This man killed a police officer and a kanine. Injured another. He would not hesitate to kill another human being! Better him than another innocent person!!!!
I AM A CRIMINAL JUSTICE TEACHER I AM A BLACK WOMAN, I USED TO WORK FOR FLORIDA PRISONS AS AN OFFICER. OFFICERS HAVE A STRONG COMMITMENT TO APPREHEND SOMEONE WHO KILLS ANYONE, HOWEVER, THERE IS A HUNGER TO MAKE SURE JUSTICE IS SERVED WHEN COMES TO A CHILD OR AN OFFICER (ESPECIALLY RISKING YOUR LIFE EVERYDAY) YES, I DO BELIEVE IN PROFILING. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT THE BIGGEST ISSUE FOR THIS SITUATION. I USE TO WORK IN POLK COUNTY AS A JUVENILE COUNSELOR. IT DOES NOT MATTER IN POLK COUNTY IF YOU ARE ASIAN,BLACK, HISPANIC, INDIAN, OR WHITE! IF YOU SHOOT A POLICE OFFICER CHANCES ARE IF YOU ARE ARMED AN YOU GO IN THE WOODS, THE PROBABLITY OF YOU MAKING IT IN THE POLICE CAR IS SLIM. ALSO, LET US REMEMBER THERE ARE CHILDREN THAT WILL NOT SAY GOODNIGHT TO THEIR FATHER TONIGHT. THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF LAUGHTER WE NEED. WORKING IN THE ANY CAPACITY OF CRIMINAL LAW, YOU SEE HOW CRUEL PEOPLE CAN BE. THERE IS NO ROOM TO LAUGH BECAUSE YOU ARE WONDERING “WHY?”
I am glad the perpetrator was found.
His resistance determined the outcome.
Sheriff Judd, thank you for your leadership, and always being the one to
provide information for the public. I am behind you - 100%.
I know in our community and in Sheriff Judd’s department, Deputy Williams, and his co-deputy, Diogi, will be missed and remembered. I appreciate all that you and your deputies do to protect and serve our county (you’re great, please keep up the good work!).
Thank you Polk County Sheriff’s office and all of your support personnel.
Right now I am hurting bad. Anybody who has served in the military or in law enforcement knows what I am talking about. I have read a lot of the comments here and I agree with some and disagree with some and some don’t deserve to be read. I feel the law enforcement agencies involved in this manhunt did a magnificent job from the word go. From cording off the area to locking down schools and shutting down roads. Sherriff Judd, I applaud the job you did along with the other agencies.! Sherriff Judd said something that really made me think, not only about this situation but, others as well. He said, the officers that write you speeding tickets are the same ones that will take a bullett for you…..
Not everyone will agree with me and that is ok. We are a free country.
Mark W.
Stop making excuses for the criminals.
Some can be rehabilitated, some cannot. I agree that our prison systems aren’t perfect. But you can’t put the blame on our prison systems for the death yesterday of a policeman and a K9. The blame lies squarely with the suspect.
It is apparent that the suspect had been in serious trouble for a very long time. Sometimes criminals are the product of their upbringing, and sometimes no matter what you do they’re just born to make trouble for themselves and everyone else.
Good job Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Swat Team.
To my friend in Sherwood, TX. I find it deplorable that you would use the tragic death of Deputy Williams, as a forum to spew your liberal agenda. Today is a day of celebration, as yesterday was a day of great loss and sadness. The suspect did not deserve a jail cell. He was not an “animal” as you have called him. He was a monster, and he died as a monster should.
I agree with you Mark Williams…. our system is in a mess. This was a very sad situation. To Bill Galvano,I am a Christian and not just so-called follower of God, I AM a follower of Christ) and actually, you sound more like an athiest then an agnostic, and I don’t celebrate the death of this man…... I think it’s very sad for ALL involved, even the unamed man.
I look at my own three year old little boy, and think that at one time this man who killed officer was a little three year old… an innocent life that somehow went very wrong.
You may not know if you believe in a God or a god, but one thing is true, “the wages of sin is death.”
I disagree that he was just an animal… he was a life as well… somebody’s son….
My condolences to both families who have lost loved ones.
In the state of Florida the death sentence was imposed on this killer, either sooner or later. Fortunately it turned out to be sooner. I just hope his body wasn’t riddled like a piece of swiss cheese, I wouldn’t want his family to benefit from what may be perceived as an over reaction by those brave officers who took him out.
Mark Williams, TX. Peace? You really think he’s at peace? The man I’m sure is in hell and there’s no peace for the damned. As far as helping these people, well you said yourself that what we’re doing is not working…...Hello! I think this man was probably a “career criminal” with all of the aliases he had. I’m not going to get into ways to help these people on this forum.
If I am a police officer and I find this guy, do you honestly think I’m going to wait and see what is in his other hand! The gentleman earlier calling this a race issue is just trying to get some sort of reaction from all this and that is very sad. He’s probably laughing right now at everyone getting all fired up. Great job to the guys out in the field. God bless all families involved.
To Jeff B. and Paul S. i am not Black but i think you two need to be put in a room with all black men and see how funny that would be. People like you talk a good talk and that is about it. I feel bad for everyone involved black or white. People like you is the reason the world is the way it is today. If it was someone in your family that got killed you wouldnt think a comment like that was funny. I could see as a child neither one of you had any home training. like they say the apple does not fall from from the tree. I am sure you both had great parents to set examples
God Bless You. May the Good Lord wrap his arms around you and comfort you. AAs a member of the Law Enforcement “family” we grieve with you. Matt was a hero, never forget that.
It seems to me this criminal got exactly what he wanted. He wasn’t going back to jail again to be treated like and animal. The way he acted, he’d probably been treated like an animal his whole life. Officer Williams probably had no idea that to this un-named man he was the gatekeeper between life and death.
Nothing is solved or ended here. The un-named man is at peace and Officer Williams leaves a widow and 3 un-raised children. We already jail more people than any country in the world. Still we have a fearful, hateful animal killing Officer Williams, walking into a school and killing a child in Colorado and shooting a principle in Wisconsin, just this week.
So while we sit here celebrating the death of a man who knew he was going to die, is there any body who has any ideas about where there people come from? Besides spitting on his grave, or killing him how can we keep people like this from getting to this point in the first place? What we are doing right now isn’t working.
This criminal had no respect or concern for the officers life he had taken. He got just what he deserved. My prayers are with the Williams family.
The Lakeland Police Dept need a metal of honor for their work today. Now the people who pay their taxes don’t have to pay for a trial and him to sit in prison. I say shoot first ask questions later. Besides he started it!!
I feel so bad for the K-9 Deputy “Diog”. No one once has mentioned him. I hope he is in a better place than here.
Deputy Matt Williams was a friend and neighbor, and will be missed deeply. My prayers are with Nancy, the children and the department with their great loss. I can tell you from years of experience as a law enforcement brat, if that man had been white as white can be, a police officer even, a mexican, a black, whatever or whoever he was, and had killed a police officer and was known to be armed and dangerous, and was found holding a gun he would still be dead!!As he should be!
Don’t forget the ever faithful K-9 Diogi that also gave his life so that we can live safely in our neighborhoods.
I am sure the killer had a family also and I feel for their loss, but I think they lost him way before this from his bio.
Meanwhile we have 2 children I am sure are afraid for their father to ever leave the house again, and 3 children who do not have the option to be afraid for their father because he is never coming back. That has nothing to do with race, it has to do with EVIL.
glad to see that the police reacted so quickly and prevented this thug from getting away and possibly harming anyone else. I do beleive there is a race issue, if by race you mean thugs/criminals and those who are not, give me a break will ya. A white man with a gun who just killed a cop would have wound up dead as well, that is justice, period!
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Posted by Robin Ganley, Port Richey on 09/29 at 06:16 PM
Most of us know right from wrong and live our lives with those basic principals. This loser has probably never done an honest days work in his life, never had to respect anyone and worked his way in and out of the system for years…........
This guy was a degenerate who probably came from a long line of degenerates…
The fruit doesn’t fall far….....
He didn’t deserve to sit in jail and get 3 square meals and free medical care and have some defense attorney say that we can’t hold him responsible because he was high on crack or he didn’t have NIKE sneakers when he was younger, therefore he had a rough childhood!!!!!!!!!!! SPARE ME!!!!!!!!!!
He was an animal and deserved to be hunted down like one.