Dan Spaeth was helping deer cross the street when scared driver shot him

A man who was trying to slow traffic in his neighborhood because deer were crossing the street was shot and killed by another man who was driving past, authorities in western Washington state said.

Dan Spaeth of Snohomish, Wash., was outside his home with his wife on the evening of Sept. 7, trying to alert passing cars to deer that were crossing the road, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Det. Kendra Conley wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in court.

He was shot once by a man driving by, who later told authorities that seeing Spaeth and his wife in the street made him afraid and he fired the shot to scare the couple, according to the affidavit.

After a search for the car, police detained Dylan Picard, 22, of Lake Stevens, Wash. He is charged with second-degree murder. Picard told detectives he did not know Spaeth or his wife.

Spaeth, 37, was a correctional officer with the state Department of Corrections, said spokesman Chris Wright. He had a 7-year-old son and was married to his teenage sweetheart, Alissa, said friend Jeff Perkins, who spoke to The Washington Post on behalf of the family.

Spaeth enjoyed playing outdoors with his son, helping his wife with her horses and shooting at gun ranges. He was a military history buff and appreciated antiques at the gun shows he frequented. The couple hosted a Fourth of July celebration every year, and Spaeth was “an amazing grill master,” Perkins said.

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“Everybody loved Dan like a brother,” Perkins said. “If you needed money, he’d help you. If you needed a ride, if you needed anything, he was there, and a lot of times you didn’t even have to ask.”

Spaeth grew up in the Snohomish area and traveled with his wife to support her hobby of showing horses and participating in rodeos, Perkins said, describing his wife as “his world.”

“If he wasn’t at work, he was playing with his son; if he wasn’t playing with his son, he was making his wife happy cleaning out the horse stalls,” Perkins said.

Spaeth’s death is another in a growing list of killings by Americans who have shot people in seemingly innocuous situations, from a 9-year-old killed by a neighbor while riding her scooter to a woman fatally shot by a homeowner for pulling into the wrong driveway.

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The suspect allegedly fired his gun “in response to a routine situation with no reasonable indications that he was in danger,” the detective wrote in the court filing.

The Post could not immediately determine whether Picard, who was jailed in Snohomish County, had a lawyer.

According to the affidavit, Picard told investigators that he was driving on the road past Spaeth’s house when the Jeep in front of him slowed down. He said he saw a man and woman in the street and said the man appeared to yell at the Jeep and hit the car with his hands.

Picard said he became “scared,” according to the affidavit, and grabbed the loaded gun he had in the car. When the Jeep drove on and Spaeth approached his car, he said he thought he saw Spaeth’s wife reach into a bag. He said he fired one shot out of the open passenger window “to scare the male and female,” the affidavit said, and said he didn’t know whether he had hit someone. He drove away.

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There was no indication in body-camera footage or in interviews with Spaeth’s wife that she had a bag with her, authorities said. Picard allegedly “acknowledged he could have” driven around the couple instead of firing his gun, according to the affidavit.

Spaeth had been a correctional officer for about a year and a half. He worked in construction before joining Perkins, also an officer, at the Department of Corrections. Wright, the spokesman, said the department had been shocked by the loss.

“Dan has been described as someone always willing to do whatever it took to get the job done in what can often be a challenging work environment,” Wright said. “He was killed in what appears to be a senseless act of violence. It’s tough to make sense of.”

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