ATHENS, Ga.,None — Police have captured the suspect wanted in connection with the shooting death of an Athens police officer.
After hours of intense negotiations, the suspect, 33-year-old Jamie Hood, surrendered to authorities Friday night on live television.
WATCH: Police Shooting Suspect Surrenders On Live TV
During a Friday night news conference, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan appealed to the suspect to surrender.
"If you come out unharmed, you will not be harmed," Keenan said as he looked directly into the camera.
Investigators said Hood also released people holed up with him inside a unit at the Creekstone Apartments in Athens.
Keenan didn't give details about the hostages, only saying that eight people were not "free to leave."
Multiple sources later told Channel 2's Tony Thomas that Hood allowed four of the hostages to walk free. Keenan confirmed that the individuals were released unharmed. The remaining four hostages were also freed after Hood surrendered to authorities.
Earlier Friday afternoon, police swarmed a neighborhood in Athens in search of Hood. Authorities told Channel 2's Manuel Bojorquez that Hood's family was brought to the location.
Channel 2's Richard Elliot got a call from Hood's mother, Azalee Hood, on Friday afternoon saying she had spoken with her son by phone and that he told her he wanted to turn himself in.
Authorities later confirmed that police were actively negotiating with Hood and that the FBI had taken over negotiations.
Local and state law enforcement agencies had launched an all-out manhunt for Hood after a shooting Tuesday that left one officer dead and another critically injured. WSB-TV hood IM Jamie Hood surrenders on live TV The shooting happened near an apartment complex on Sycamore Drive in Athens.
"It's assassination. It's ambushing police," said Athens Clarke County Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin. He choked back tears when asked about the slain officer's family.
Athens-Clarke County police said Hood fatally shot Senior Police Officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian, a veteran of the force.
"He was the epitome of a good person. Just a great person who loved to help people," Lumpkin said.
Senior Police Officer Tony Howard was wounded. Howard was alert and talking and undergoing treatment at a local hospital, officials said.
At about 12:53 p.m. Tuesday, police had been investigating an alleged kidnapping and carjacking, in which Hood was named a suspect, that had occurred on Winterville Road.
Police said Howard spotted a vehicle driven by one of Hood's relatives.
When Howard stopped the vehicle, the driver appeared to be compliant, but that's when Hood got out of the vehicle and opened fire on the officer, police said.
Hood fled the scene and encountered more officers, at which point he shot into a police cruiser driven by Christian, fatally wounding the officer, police said.
"It was definitely a large caliber. It must have killed instantly," said witness Bobby Billups of the gun he heard.
News Chopper 2 flew over the area Tuesday and showed officers gathered around a police cruiser with the driver's side window shattered and broken glass in the road.
Lumpkin said Hood initially committed two carjackings, one before the police shootings and one after.
Channel 2's Erica Byfield interviewed a woman who said she was one of Hood's carjacking victims.
"I saw the guy waiting, but I wasn't really paying attention," the woman said, after having picked up food from a fast food restaurant. She told Byfield that she pulled up to a stop sign and a man opened her passenger's side door.
"He just grabbed the car latch and got in the car," she said. The man pulled out a gun and told her the police were after him and she needed to drive quickly, the woman recounted.
Less than five minutes later, she said the man told her to get out of the car.
"I just know that God was there, and he let me out of that car," the woman said.
Police said the vehicle taken in the carjacking was a silver Chevrolet Prism with Georgia license plate 375GHX. The vehicle was later found, but there was no sign of Hood.
Officers from several local and state law enforcement agencies canvased the Clarke County area for days in search of Hood.
They had increased the reward for information leading to Hood's arrest to $50,000. Crime Stoppers doubled its regular reward of up to $5,000 to $10,000. The FBI contributed another $40,000, bringing the total reward to $50,000.
Hood's parents had also pleaded for him to turn himself in.
"I'm begging Jamie to turn himself in. I mean, I don't want anything to happen to him. They say he killed that officer and shot the other -- that's wrong. I feel sorry for the family," Azalee Hood said in an interview Tuesday.
"Lord have mercy," said Hood's father, Robert Hood.
WSBTV
