Man charged in officer’s killing was naked when captured

CEDARTOWN, Ga. Two police officers were shot, one of them fatally, when a man walked out of the woods Friday and opened fire as the officers investigated a stolen car found beside a road in rural Georgia, authorities said.

The suspected gunman, 31-year-old Seth Brandon Spangler, was arrested a few hours later after he again emerged from a patch of woods — this time wearing no clothes — and surrendered, Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd said.

Dodd said Spangler was wanted for a probation violation in a neighboring county. Now he faces felony murder and aggravated assault charges in the slaying of Polk County police Officer Kristin Hearne and the shooting of Officer David Goodrich, whose bulletproof vest protected him from serious injury.

Goodrich had gone to investigate a report of a stolen vehicle just before 11 a.m., and Hearne came as backup. Spangler and Samantha Roof, 22, walked out of a wooded area toward the officers. When the officers began talking to them, they acted suspiciously and Spangler pulled out a handgun and shot both officers, said Vernon Keenan, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Spangler and Roof ran from the scene and a manhunt ensued. Roof was quickly arrested and Spangler surrendered to officers hours later, Keenan said.

“He came out of the woods with no clothes on and just gave himself up,” Dodd said. Goodrich was hit in his bulletproof vest and was able to return fire, Dodd said. Hearne, a detective, was in plainclothes — a polo shirt and khakis — and wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest.