TRAGEDY

Washington State Man Fatally Shot Trying to Help Deer Cross the Road

The 22-year-old suspect arrested in the incident told police he grabbed his gun “because he was scared” of the man, who was reportedly yelling.

An off-duty corrections officer was shot and killed while trying to slow traffic and help deer cross the road outside his home earlier this month, authorities said. Dan Spaeth’s wife told investigators that the two of them had been in their driveway, attempting to alert drivers to the deer, on Sept. 7 when she heard a “pop” sound and turned to find her husband on the ground, according to probable cause documents. Spaeth, who’d been shot in the chest, died at the scene. The next day, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office arrested Dylan Picard, 22, on suspicion of second-degree murder after officers spotted his vehicle, which matched witness descriptions. When asked if he knew why he was being detained, the suspect said, “I shot somebody,” according to The Seattle Times. Picard told police that he had grabbed the loaded gun next to him in the car after becoming “scared” of a man outside Spaeth’s house, who’d appeared to yell and hit the vehicle in front of him. When detectives told Picard that Spaeth had died, the 22-year-old began to cry, the Times reported.