The incident that led to the shooting death of an Athens police officer Tuesday started with a man locked in a car trunk, his hands and feet bound with plastic Zip Ties.
The 31-year-old man would later escape and tell police that he'd been ambushed by Jamie Hood, 33.
Hood had asked Judon Antron Brooks to come to a house on Ranick Road east of downtown Athens, where several associates, their faces hidden by ski masks, were waiting with guns, according to a police incident report obtained Wednesday by the AJC.
When Brooks entered, they forced him to the ground and demanded the addresses of several people. Hood told him he'd be killed if they couldn't get money, the police report said, then bound him and tossed him into the trunk of a brown Cadillac.
Hood and his associates drove off, with some of the men following in the victim's car. When the Cadillac stopped on busy Lexington Road, Brooks somehow freed his hands, popped the trunk and hopped out. His captors sped away, according to the report from the Athens-Clarke County Police.
Police were still looking for Hood Wednesday evening -- for the alleged kidnapping and for the crimes that would follow, including the murder of a policeman.
Soon after Brooks escaped and told police what had happened to him, Athens-Clarke County police officer Tony Howard spotted Hood west of downtown Athens. Hood was in a red Chevrolet Suburban driven by his brother, Matthew, 27. When Howard stopped the SUV, Jamie Hood fired at him, hitting him more than once, according to police. Jamie Hood ran from the SUV and shot and killed Officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian when Christian approached in his cruiser, police said.
Matthew Hood was arrested and taken to the Clarke County Jail, where he was being held Wednesday on a probation violation charge. But his brother escaped and, according to another police report obtained by the AJC, he carjacked a silver Geo Prizm driven by a 51-year-old woman. Jamie Hood pointed a handgun at her and told her to drive, the report said. After a short distance, he ordered her out of the car, and drove off alone. Police found the car later that day east of downtown Athens, near the Ben Epps Airport.
While scores of officers combed Athens for Hood Wednesday, the slain officer's relatives visited a funeral home.
Christian, 34, was a veteran policeman who had started a family in recent years in the same small town where he'd grown up.
He lived within 10 miles of his parents and his brother in Hull, a rural crossroads with a couple hundred people eight miles outside Athens. He and his wife kept horses, which she rode. (He preferred riding sporty motorcycles with his younger brother.) He was a deacon at Hull Baptist Church, which he'd attended all his life. In that role, he'd counseled other families in times of duress, like when a relative had died.
"He loved to help people," said the younger brother, Jason, 32. That is why, in December 2002, Elmer Christian joined the Athens police force, Jason Christian said.
Elmer Christian's wife, Melissa, tried to explain to their 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son that their father was dead, said an aunt, Debbie Meadows. "She has talked to the kids, but they don't have a grasp of what's really going on."
The visitation has been scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bernstein Funeral Home, 3195 Atlanta Hwy. in Athens. It will go on "as long as necessary to accommodate visitors," according to police. The funeral is at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Classic Center, 300 N. Thomas St. in Athens.
The funeral procession will travel west on Broad Street to Evergreen Memorial Park at 3655 Atlanta Hwy., and police are asking people to line the road, from downtown to the cemetery.
While the family mourned Christian, more details emerged about his alleged killer. Hood has a history of violence, with a conviction for an armed robbery he committed in July 1997. He stuck up a pizza delivery man at an apartment complex using a .25-cal gun, according to the Clarke County Superior Court Clerk's office. For that, he got $3 and more than 11 years in prison.
Police were concentrating their search Wednesday around the airport, where the stolen Prizm was found and the earlier kidnapping occurred. Hood has family in the area. He's apparently close to them. He had his father's name, Robert, tattooed onto his right arm, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. His mother's name, Azale, was inked into his left arm along with a heart.
The thought of a murderous man on the loose had people there on edge.
"Everyone around here should stay in pairs when they're shutting down their businesses," said Deborah Morgan, the office manager at Top Dog Complete Auto Repair. It's on Lexington Road, next to the airport and within a half mile of the spot where Hood's alleged victim clambered out of the Cadillac's trunk.
There are plenty of wooded areas nearby, with homeless encampments, and Morgan worries that Hood could blend in, then emerge to attack an innocent person. She fears what would happen if he were to make his way into a neighborhood near the University of Georgia and break into a student's home.
"I just don't want to see a hostage situation," she said.
Shop owner Dean Rose took a break from car repairs to wipe his hands and come to the phone.
"It's horrible that somebody would take the life of a police officer," he said. "The man shouldn't have been released from prison."
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