Florida Cop Killer Shot 68 Times
A Florida gunman, who shot and killed an officer and his
police dog, was shot at 110 times and hit 68 times when SWAT team members
found him the following day hiding in the woods under a tree trunk and he
refused to show his hands. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the fugitive
would have been shot more, but the SWAT team ran out of bullets.
Angilo Freeland (pictured), 27, a suspected drug dealer, fled from police after he was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by Deputy Douglas Speirs. The deputy called for back-up and Deputy Vernon Matthew Williams answered the call with his police dog.
As they followed the suspect into the woods there was a "burst of gunfire" and Deputy Williams and his dog were killed and Speirs was wounded in the leg. An autopsy report revealed that Williams, 39, was shot eight times. He was shot once a close range behind his right year and again in his right temple.
After a massive manhunt for the fugitive through the night, a SWAT team surrounded Freeland in a thickly wooded area hiding under a fallen tree. When he failed to show the officers both hands and they spotted a handgun in one of his hands, they opened fire. Freeland's autopsy showed that he was shot 68 times. An investigation of the scene revealed that police fired 110 rounds.
"That's all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters.
See Also:
Accused of Killing Deputy, Suspect Shot 68 Times
Earlier Article:
Police Kill Florida Cop Killer
Comments
Glad they got him,also saved us taxpayer the cost of feeding a killer for years, as far as the swat team, 62% of shots hit target?
All of those officers should be fired. We don’t need vengeful, trigger-happy commandos on the police force. That is ridiculous.
The Swat Team and the Sheriff of Polk County need to be arrested and tried for the execution style murder of Angilo Freeland. Their duty was to apprehend Freeland and, if need be, kill him. They were not hired to judge, jury and sentence to death anybody! Sixty-eight (68) out of a hail of 110 bullets is an execution and sounds premeditated to me.
The cop murderer did NOT show his hands when asked.
He WANTED to be shot, sometimes guilty people “ask” to be killed because they can’t take life anymore.
YEAH! SWAT team!!!
Polk County’s Moncho Sheriff and Moncho SWAT team. Did it help to vent tempers on a corpse???? (After two or three shots Freeland was probley dead. thus, only family and friends felt the pain.)
Some say we will reap what we sew—and God said—ten fold. Geeeee
I understand that he didn’t show his hands and they shot him. They didn’t have to shoot him that many times though and they don’t have to brag about it. People do bad things, but i don’t think they should be killed that tragically by people who we look to protect us. That was very bad judgement on the police department.
If any man shoots an officer and his dog for any reason, how can you people feel compasion for him/her. The officer was a man making a living protecting you because he felt it was right and just, and you people don’t feel his death should be avenged. A careless, pathetic, good for nothing man was killed for killing an officer. Eye for an eye! I’m sure you people would feel differently if the innocent people killed were relatives or yourself. Nice job upholding justice Polk County, my hat is off to you gentlemen.
Do you really want a Sheriff that kisses the butt of every thug just to be sure said thug gets his day in court? Honestly, just how safe would you be when the Sheriff won’t stand up and say “ENOUGH! Abide by the law or bear the consequences”? Submitting to the authority given to law enforcement officers is part of abiding by the law. That’s why their called law ENFORCEMENT. Their job is to enforce the law as peacefully as possible. But understand this, the person being detained by a LEO pretty much determines how he will be treated. I know because my husband is a cop. It doesn’t matter if he’s dealing with the worst drug dealer in Polk County. If the guy is cooperative, then he’s treated fairly. If he acts out and tries to run or tackle my husband, he gets to get up close and personal with the pavement or taser. If he pulls a gun, he gets shot.(thankfully, the last hasn’t happened to my hubby.)
Freeland could have at anytime in the 21 hours that he ran from a speeding ticket and hid in the woods, come out with his hands up and surrendered. He would have gotten his day in court (and a date with the needle). He chose not to do that. He chose instead to run, ambush and murder Matt and DiOGi, steal Matt’s gun, shoot Deputy Spiers, shoot at 2 Detectives and hide in a hole under a huge fallen tree.
110 shots really isn’t that many when
there were 10 SWAT guys armed with M-16s fully auto. 68 confirmed hits but he was probably shot more than that. That’s just the number of holes the ME counted after scraping him back together. 9 of the SWAT team shot (the 10th was positioned so that he would have hit other cops if he fired) after identifing the suspect and telling him more than once to put his hands up. The guy must have not been too bright if he thought pulling out a gun would help his situation.
The M.E. said that if Freeland had stopped at 6 shots, Matt would have lived. Been paralized, but he would be alive. He was shot in both legs, the right wrist, the left arm, his buttocks and in the spine(i can’t imagine that felt good and sounds to me like he was disabling him with intent to murder him, maybe not. that’s just what it sounds like). Then shot at close range behind the ear and one contact shot to the right temple. 8 SHOTS. But, since no one’s outraged by the number of shots used on Matt, I guess 8 shots is acceptable?!
He killed a cop. he was killed. Is there any surprises here? An eye for an eye. My only thing is, why was he pulled over? Was he being suspiciously black? I know being suspicuously black violates penal code 14334.3c. This piece of crap killed a cop and to me, got the easy way out.
The Swat Team and The Sheriff of Polk County should of been arrested. It funny how a Black man gets shot 68 times and the final answer is, if we had more bullets we would of shot him more. What is the world comming too. People pay attention A Black Man in a White neighborhood–they scaerd Mr. Freeland and this is the way that he suffered being shot 68 times. TRUST ME, they gave their side of story however the real deal is that they harrased Mr. Freeland and now his family suffers from it all. May God have Mercy on florida swat team souls………
Anger says:
“All of those officers should be fired. We don’t need vengeful, trigger-happy commandos on the police force. That is ridiculous.”
You gotta be kidding me?!? An assumption on your part that it was vengeful. He’s already killed, and then has a gun in his hand when confronted. Maybe they first should have tried negotiating with this sub-human scum? What a Bozo!
Anger and Dianne you two are dumbasses! A cop was killed by a thug and his partners avenged his death. You two are basically saying if someone murdered someone in your family you wouldn’t avenge their death. Anyways that thug would have received the death penalty for killing the cop and the dog. All the SWAT team did was save us money! You two need to get a gut check and go hug a damn tree!
I agree Anger and Dianne are dumbasses.They should ride along with a cop and see what it’s like to arrest someone without bruising them, while the perp trys to kick your ass or kill you.Then have some one scream Police Brutality afterwards.
Anger & Dianne must have been on the jury that awarded a settlement to the estate of the bank robber that shot up North Hollywood, CA. a while back.
Listen to kprncss5495, she is absolutely right. 1)this loser had a choice, he chose poorly, now hes dead and we are all better for it 2) considering the shear number of Officers on scene I am amazed there weren’t more shots fired.It’s not like one Officer shot this scumbag 110 times.
Bottom line that piece of trash didn’t obey the law and he got shot. It’s just to bad he had to kill an Officer(not to mention a father and husband) & Police Dog before he was killed. All you bleeding hearts and ACLU lovers better thank any Police Officer you meet for putting his life on the line every day so we can all live a little safer.God Bless all out LEO’s & Emergency Service providers!
There is no doubt that the person shot was a cop killer. As far as I am concerned when we caught him we should have taken him out back in front of everyone and shot the same way he shot the officer. having said that, it does give me a bit of pause when officers on the hunt make that decision on their own. They were right on this guy he deserved to die but there was a similar incident in NJ a few years back. A female police officer was killed and when cops caught their suspect they beat him to death. One problem, it turns out they had the wrong guy.
Fantastic…. One more piece of garbage removed from the streets we all have to walk down. When an officer with a gun asks you to do something… Do It.
Plain and simple.
i have read a lot of comments and from what i’ve seen i do not think that people have comprehended the fullness of the situation. this was a simple traffic stop that turned bad because mr Freeland decided to run. Deputy spiers chased after him and was shot by mr freeland. backup was called and that’s when matt and diogi chased after him. matt was brought down…and then shot eight times point blank. diogi was also shot. hours later…this person was found under a tree one hundred yards from where Matt was found dead….when you kill a cop..you will have every cop in the state on your behind…and they will come ready to defend themselves because once you kill a cop they are put on the highest alert…meaning be ready for anything. they found him with a GUN in his hand…they told him before they discovered the gun to put his hands in the air…he raised one and refused to raise the other…one of the swat members saw the gun and opened fire. remember…this person had just killed a cop and was refusing to show his other hand with the gun in it. now do you guys still side with mr freeland or do you see where you were wrong????
You know what if you all don’t like the way Florida handles cop killers stay out of Florida we don’t need you or want you here. The guy executed a police officer that pulled him over for speeding then took the mans gun and ran 21 hours later he continued to be a threat to the community and SWAT removed him from the gene pool. so to all those people calling for the arrest of the officers I ask you this. What would you have done if one of your friends was just murdered by a guy and you caught up to him hiding under a tree waiting to ambush you?? Most of you liberals calling the officers murders don’t have the stone to put on a badge and do the job your self.
I believe that ASAP the SWAT Team should be scheduled for more firearms training, and have to answer an extensive questionairre as to why 42 shots did not hit the target!!
He got exactly what he deserved… A bullet – well, 68 actually… Way to go police officers.
Job well done SWAT TEAM!
what happened is exactly what should have happened. period. end of story.
A bit of overkill ( don’t you think )
This is ridiculous – how can be people be applauding what happened here? Killing people to show everyone that killing people is wrong…? There’s something not right about that.
I hope this SWAT learned their lesson and will be packing more ammo in the future.
Guest
“This is ridiculous – how can be people be applauding what happened here? Killing people to show everyone that killing people is wrong…? There’s something not right about that.”
I think you missed it completly. He wasn’t killed to teach anyone a lesson. He was killed to protect the citizens of Florida and the officers trying to apprehend him. I say Bravo for SWAT it warms my heart to read stories like this.The left always make these mistakes when it comes to crime.
Jail is not meant as a deterent it’s punishment.
Killing a murderer who is still armed and dangerous is self defence not execution.
To hell with the criminal, and anyone who thinks we was shot too many times. If he’s dead after 10 shots, another 58 ain’t going to hurt him, and it only costs about twenty five cents a round, so I say keep shooting. I only wish I had been there, I would have improved the hit rate a little.
He was a threat to the officer’s lives, and they responded appropriately. If he had killed one of my co-workers, I would have set his body on fire afterwards, and then peed on him to put it out.
It seems to me they exercised great restraint and professionalism.
This is a very sad world. And all of you all are very sad individuals that need JESUS. Yes that man did a very horrible thing by killing an Up Right man of the Law, but were do law and justice comes in at when law abiding citizens turn around and use extra force in revenge to take down a suspect. Polk co. wanted that individual dead before they even got to him. I would not be surprised if the suspect had information about the entire department (corruption) and they all wanted him dead. Seriously though, if you have a suspect trapped and there is no threat because he never showed any types of weapon, why would you shoot until all amunition is gone. Unless you wanted him dead and did not care about anything but him diying. I would investigate the Department just to make sure things are clean. I would hate to see what happens if another cop get killed in the line of duty what this department would do