Cop Killer Surrenders, Releases Hostages
Suspect, hostages walk out of Athens duplex
Updated: Friday, 25 Mar 2011, 11:40 PM EDT
MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta

ATHENS, Ga. - Alleged Athens cop killer Jamie Hood surrendered peacefully to authorities late Friday night outside an apartment complex on live television. Hood, 33, took eight hostages inside a residence late Friday afternoon, and he is accused of shooting two police officers on Tuesday.

Hood was seen walking out and surrendering to authorities just after 11 p.m. Hood agreed to surrender but wanted television cameras to be present when he did it.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations says Hood has released four of the eight hostages he has been holding in an apartment on Friday evening, and later, authorities asked him on live television to please surrender. GBI director Vernon Keenan promised that if Hood surrenders unarmed, he will not be harmed in any form or fashion.

Keenan said in a news conference late Friday night that Hood was communicating with law enforcement, and he had a good rapport with them. He said Hood was concerned for his personal safety.

Family members of Hood told FOX 5 that he called his mother on Friday afternoon and said he was ready to surrender, but he wanted to see her first. Those family members say when police arrived to get Hood’s mother, they took her to the police station instead of directly to her son.

Earlier in the day, Keenan announced that Hood, 33, had taken eight hostages. Since then, four of them—two men and two children—have been released unharmed from the northwest Athens apartment.

The complex, which is called the Creekstone Apartments, is located off of Commerce Road, and it is made up of two and three-bedroom duplexes.

Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jack Lumpkin said on Friday afternoon officers were working diligently for the safe release of the hostages, and the safe surrender of Hood.