Wed March 26, 2014
(CNN) – It’s perhaps the unanswered questions after Brandon Goode’s death that will haunt his parents the most.
“Words do not exist to express the measure of our sorrow and sadness,” Ricke and Connie Goode said in a statement issued Wednesday to CNN affiliates WESH and Central Florida News 13. “Whether mental illness, substance abuse or something else, we are a family searching.”
Brandon Goode, 18, and Alexandria “Alex” Hollinghurst, 17, both of Davenport, Florida, are accused of fatally shooting a police officer before apparently committing suicide.
Windermere police Officer Robert German called for support after witnessing Goode and Hollinghurst — who had been reported missing — walking along a street early Saturday. But when backup arrived, German was found lying on the ground, suffering from a gunshot wound, according to Polk County authorities.
German, 31, was later pronounced dead at an Orlando hospital; the teens’ lifeless bodies were discovered under brush not far from where German had been shot, county authorities said.
Robert German was killed in the line of duty Saturday.
A five-year veteran with the Windermere Police Department, German had just returned to the force after being on “light-duty status” following surgery for an injury he suffered several months ago, Windermere Police Chief David Ogden said.
“All he wanted to do is be a cop,” the chief said. “Officer German was a good cop. He was one of the finest police officers that we had in this agency.”
The days leading up to the celebrated officer’s death weave a complicated web that has left investigators puzzled over what happened.