'Scared' driver fatally shoots man helping deer cross street

A Washington state man was shot and killed while trying to slow traffic in his neighborhood to help some deer cross the street.

Dan Spaeth and his wife were outside their Snohomish home on Sept. 7 trying to alert drivers to the animals crossing the road, but another man driving past told investigators that he was afraid of the couple and fired what he intended to be a warning shot -- but the bullet fatally struck the 37-year-old father, reported the Washington Post.

“Everybody loved Dan like a brother,” said family friend Jeff Perkins. “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."

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Spaeth, a corrections officer who was married to his high school sweetheart Alissa and had a 7-year-old son, traveled with his wife as she showed horses and took part in rodeos, and Perkins said he enjoyed shooting at gun ranges and frequented gun shows.

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

Police arrested 22-year-old Dylan Picard, of Lake Stevens, on second-degree murder charges, and detectives said he fired his gun "in response to a routine situation with no reasonable indications that he was in danger."

Picard told police he was "scared" when Spaeth appeared to yell at a Jeep that slowed down in front of him, so he reached for the loaded gun he kept in his car and opened fire through the open passenger window when Spaeth's wife appeared to reach into a bag.

Police said that body camera footage from witness interviews don't show any evidence that she had a bag, and Picard admitted he could have just driven around the couple instead of shooting his gun.