Mayor Bloomberg calls on state to deny parole for killers of Officer Eddie Byrne

Officer Eddie Byrne

Mayor Bloomberg calls on state to deny parole for killers of Officer Eddie Byrne 

Mayor Bloomberg called on the state parole board to not free the four men who killed a Queens cop more than 20 years ago.

The four men convicted of the 1988 assassination of Officer Eddie Byrne — slain while protecting a witness in a drug case during the height of the city’s crack wars — will get their first parole hearings in Albany Friday.



The men are serving 25-year-to-life sentences — and Bloomberg said their punishment was not over yet.

“It would be a gross abuse of justice if those who committed a premeditated assassination of a police officer are allowed to walk free,” Bloomberg told the board in a letter sent Tuesday, but released Thursday.

“The crime still resonates in our city — not only in the hearts and minds of those who loved Officer Byrne, but in the millions of people who remember his story.”

Byrne, who had just turned 22, was sitting alone in a marked NYPD squad car, guarding the house of a witness in a case against drug kingpin Howard (Pappy) Mason.

Mason was in jail when he ordered four men — Philip Copeland, Todd Scott, Scott Cobb and David McClary — to kill a cop, authorities believe. Mason is now doing life without parole at a maximum-security facility in Colorado.

The goons drove up to Byrne’s parked car on 107th Ave. and Inwood St. in Jamaica, where McClary opened fire through the driver’s window and hit Byrne five times in the head.

Bloomberg said the men responsible for the brazen murder deserve to stay in the clink for the life they took away.

“Officer Byrne, only 22 years old, was robbed of a life that was so full of promise,” Bloomberg said.

“Today, he would be only 47 years old — still in the prime of his life. We can only imagine what the years would have brought him — perhaps marriage and children. Those joyous occasions were taken from him and from his family.”

Later, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly echoed Bloomberg’s comments.

"Quite frankly, I don't think we should ever grant parole to anybody found guilty of killing a police officer in the line of duty,” said Kelly.

The top cop, who was a deputy chief at the time of the killing, said the assassination of Byrne “had an extremely traumatic affect on the department because of the way it happened.”

“This was premeditated and it was meant to send a signal to society in general, not only the police department,” he said. “It made a permanent difference in the way we policed."

Kelly said the NYPD formed tactical narcotics teams after Byrne’s death that “gave police resolve to go after drug operations even more.”

State Trooper, 48, killed in collision with semi-truck in Beaver County

Trooper Blake T. Coble

State Trooper, 48, killed in collision with semi-truck

SOUTH BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Pa. —

A Pennsylvania State Trooper was killed in a two-vehicle crash Thursday morning in Beaver County.


According to police, a semi-truck collided with the trooper's cruiser just after 10 a.m. near the intersection of Route 168 and Blackhawk Road in South Beaver Township.

Channel 11’s Amy Marcinkiewicz reported that Trooper Blake T. Coble was taken to Beaver County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Marcinkiewicz reported that Coble was a 20 year veteran of the force who was married with two kids.

State police commissioner Frank Noonan released a statement saying, "It is with a very heavy heart and a deep sense of sadness that I announce the tragic death of Trooper First Class Blake T. Coble of Troop D, Beaver Station."

Trooper Coble, age 48, had been a member of the Pennsylvania State Police since Nov. 1, 1988.

Trooper Coble has two children and his wife, Brenda, is a Police Communications Operator at Troop D, Beaver Station.

His untimely death left two children without a father and a wife without her husband, plus countless friends and family members grieving.  He died serving the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the men and women of the Pennsylvania State Police mourn his loss and extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends."

Coble was the 94^th member of Pennsylvania state police to be killed in the line of duty.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Funeral today for SQ officer killed in crash - Montreal - CBC News

Funeral today for SQ officer killed in crash - Montreal - CBC News

The private funeral for a 23-year-old Sûreté du Québec officer killed while responding to an emergency call last week will be held today in Laval.

Const. Katia Hadouchi died on Sept. 26 after she lost control of the patrol car she was driving near Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare in Lanaudière.


 
Const. Katia Hadouchi, 23, joined the provincial police in May 2010. She was alone in the vehicle and responding to a call at the time of the crash.

The cause of the crash hasn't been released, but police pulled more than 100 vehicle off the road in the days following the fatal accident after realizing the patrol cars were the subject of a manufacturer's recall due to suspension problems. The recall was preventative and the service was not required to pull them, the SQ said.

Investigators have not concluded that vehicle failure was to blame for the fatal crash.

Hadouchi's visitation and funeral ceremony will take place at the Laval convention centre this afternoon.

She joined the provincial police in May 2010. She was assigned to the MRC Matawinie branch in Rawdon, Que., a short time later.

Mexican troops arrest 2 in killing of U.S. border agent - World News

Mexican troops arrest 2 in killing of U.S. border agent - World News

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican troops have arrested two suspects in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the wounding of a second officer in Arizona, Mexican security officials said on Wednesday.

The two suspects were detained in a Mexican military operation in the city of Agua Prieta, in Mexico's northern Sonora state, a few miles from the spot where Nicholas Ivie was shot dead early on Tuesday while responding to a tripped ground sensor, a Mexican Army officer, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Nicholas Ivie

Ivie was among three agents who were patrolling on foot about five miles north of the international border when gunfire erupted. A second agent was also wounded while the third, a woman, was unharmed.

The agents had been patrolling in an area near the border town of Naco, well-known as a corridor for smuggling, and the Cochise County Sheriff's department has said that tracks were found heading south after the shooting.

Ivie was a 30-year-old father of two who grew up in Utah and was active in the Mormon Church. He had been an agent for four years.

A Mexican police official in Naco, across the border from the Arizona town of the same name, confirmed the arrests, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.

U.S. officials refused to comment on the report of the arrests to NBC News.

It was the first fatal shooting of an on-duty Border Patrol agent since December 2010, when Brian Terry was killed in a shootout with bandits near the border. Terry's shooting was later linked to the government's "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation, which allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns for others to walk away from gun shops with weapons, rather than be arrested.

Two Border Patrol agents were killed last year in an accident during a car chase with smugglers near Phoenix.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Border Agent in Shooting Released from Hospital

Border Agent in Shooting Released from Hospital  

NACO, Ariz –  Federal investigators are scouring the border looking for clues in the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent as a nationwide manhunt for the killer continues.

Nicholas Ivie and a colleague were on patrol in the desert near Naco, about 100 miles from Tucson, when gunfire broke out shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Border Patrol.

Nicholas Ivie

Ivie, 30, was killed. The other agent, whose name hasn't been released, was released from the hospital after being shot in the ankle and buttocks.

It was the first fatal shooting of an agent since a deadly 2010 firefight with Mexican bandits that spawned congressional probes of a botched government gun-smuggling investigation.

SUMMARY

The last Border Patrol agent fatally shot on duty was Brian Terry, who died in a shootout with bandits near the border in December 2010. The Border Patrol station in Naco, where the two agents shot Tuesday were stationed, was recently named after Terry.

No arrests have been made. Authorities suspect that more than one person fired at the agents.

No weapons have been found, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because information on the search hasn't been publicly released.

Agents and deputies were searching the area on ATVs, horseback and on foot with up to four helicopters overhead in the southern foothills of the Mule Mountains that's considered a known smuggling area.

"It's been a long day for us but it's been longer for no one more than a wife whose husband is not coming home. It's been longer for two children whose father is not coming home, and that is what is going to strengthen our resolve" to find those responsible and enforce the law, said Jeffrey Self, commander of Customs and Border Protection's Arizona joint field command.

Ivie lived in Sierra Vista with his wife and their two young daughters.

President Barack Obama called Ivie's family Tuesday to offer condolences and to express his gratitude for Ivie's "selfless service to his nation," a White House statement said.

Obama made it clear that the administration "was doing everything it could to locate those responsible."

The last Border Patrol agent fatally shot on duty was Brian Terry, who died in a shootout with bandits near the border in December 2010. The Border Patrol station in Naco, where the two agents shot Tuesday were stationed, was recently named after Terry.

Terry's shooting was later linked to the government's "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation, which allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns for others to walk away from gun shops with weapons, rather than be arrested.

Authorities intended to track the guns into Mexico. Two rifles found at the scene of Terry's shooting were bought by a member of the gun-smuggling ring being investigated.

Critics of the operation say any shooting along the border now raises the specter that those illegal weapons are still being used in border violence.

"There's no way to know at this point how the agent was killed, but because of Operation Fast and Furious, we'll wonder for years if the guns used in any killing along the border were part of an ill-advised gun-walking strategy," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a statement.

The Terry family said that the shooting was a "graphic reminder of the inherent dangers that threaten the safety of those who live and work near the border."

Authorities set up a checkpoint on a dirt road about seven miles southeast of Bisbee. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoint declined to comment and barred reporters from going further.

The agents were fired upon in a rugged hilly area about five miles north of the border as they responded to an alarm that was triggered on one of the sensors, said sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas. It wasn't immediately known whether the agents returned fire, she said.

The Border Patrol said Ivie worked for the agency since January 2008 and grew up in Provo, Utah. He worked as an emergency medical technician before joining the Border Patrol, said his brother-in-law, Todd Davis. He served a two-year mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico City after high school.

Davis said Ivie's desire to help others, and his love of the outdoors and riding horses led him to the Border Patrol, where he served on the horse patrol unit.

"Nick always tried to help others. He was a very selfless man with his family, with his friends, in anything he did," Davis said. "You know the risk but you pray this day would never happen."

Twenty-six Border Patrol agents have died in the line of duty since 2002.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

UPDATE: Man who killed Officer Grove could receive the death penalty

Officer David Grove

UPDATE: Man who killed Officer Grove could receive the death penalty

Christopher Johnson was convicted of first degree murder Tuesday in the death of state Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove. The jury is now charged with sentencing Johnson to death or life in prison with no chance for parole.

After six days of testimony, the jury decided that Johnson willfully and with premeditation fired 18 shots aimed at killing the law enforcement officer. The murder occurred November 11, 2010, in a rural area near Gettysburg.

Grove had pulled Johnson over on suspicion of poaching when a gunfight ensued.

Christopher Johnson left the Adams County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon convicted of first degree murder. According to testimony, he told a friend with him that evening as Officer Grove was pulling them over, that he was not going back to prison.

As a convicted felon he was not allowed to have a gun. But before getting out of his pickup, he tucked a .45 pistol in his pants.

The jury took only 45 minutes to reach a guilty verdict on murder and three other felony charges.

The jury returned to the courtroom to begin the penalty phase of the trial. The six men and six women from Lancaster County must decide whether to sentence Johnson to death or life imprisonment without parole.

In its opening, the defense called the only possible sentences "the two worst punishments in a civilized country." It intends to show that Johnson is bright, has empathy for the victim's family and that there's still much of value in Christopher's life.

District Attorney Shawn Wagner said he will outline four aggravating circumstances supporting the death penalty, including that the defendant killed Officer Grove while committing a felony.

Other circumstances will be that Grove was a witness to a felony committed by Johnson and was killed to prevent him from testifying, that Johnson has a history of felony convictions involving the threat or use of force and that Grove was a law enforcement officer killed in the performance of his duties.

In summation, Wagner asked, "Does any evidence out weigh the life of Officer Grove?"

Upon objection, Judge Michael George ordered the courtroom cleared. After meeting on a side bar with attorneys, when the jurors returned, he warned them, "Do not weigh one life against another. It would be in violation of your oath."

The jury returns Wednesday morning. The defense will try to convince the members why they should spare the life of a man who with premeditation killed a law enforcement officer.

The judge expects testimony will end Wednesday and that deliberation of the penalty phase could begin Thursday.
___________________________________________

Christopher Johnson was found guilty of first degree murder this morning in the 2010 shooting death of a state Wildlife Conservation Officer near Gettysburg. Officer David Grove died in a gun battle with Johnson after pulling him over on suspicion of deer poaching.

The jury will reconvene at 1:00 this afternoon for a sentencing hearing. They have to select one of two penalties: death or life imprisonment without parole

The verdict was rendered in just 35 minutes. Although the jury of six men and six women were selected from Lancaster County because of the high profile case, the trial was held in the Adams County Courthouse in Gettysburg.

District Attorney Shawn Wagner is withholding comment until the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.

Copyright 2012 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Manhunt underway for suspects in fatal Border Patrol shooting in Arizona

Manhunt underway for suspects in fatal Border Patrol shooting in Arizona

WASHINGTON -- Federal and state authorities have launched a widespread manhunt along a remote part of the U.S.-Mexico border for three to four suspects in a Tuesday morning shooting that left one Border Patrol agent dead and another wounded.

Dozens of investigators in helicopters and on horseback were searching an area as large as 20 miles for the suspects who allegedly opened fire on the agents when they approached to check on a tripped ground sensor.

"It was basically an ambush,'' said Cochise County Sheriff's Department Commander Marc Denney, whose agency is assisting the FBI in the search and investigation.

Denney said no weapons have been recovered. It was also unclear whether the suspects were involved in human smuggling or drug trafficking through a rocky corridor, about five miles from the Mexican border.
Denney said it was possible the suspects fled into Mexico following the shooting.

"They had a little bit of a jump on us,'' he said. "It is very rocky terrain. We're hoping that they hunkered down somewhere close by so that we have an opportunity to find them.''

The shooting occurred shortly before 2 a.m., when three agents on horseback were dispatched to an area near Naco after the ground sensor had been activated, said George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council an association of 17,000 agents and staffers.

McCubbin said one of the agents was killed, another wounded in the ankle and buttocks and third escaped without injury. The wounded agent, McCubbin said, was recovering at a local hospital.The agents were not identified, but McCubbin said they were assigned to the Border Patrol station re-named just two weeks ago in honor of Agent Brian Terry.

Terry was slain in the same general area in December 2010, an incident that triggered congressional and Justice Department inquiries into a botched gun trafficking operation which allowed 2,000 firearms to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartel enforcers and other criminals. Two guns from that operation, known as Fast and Furious, were found at the scene of Terry's murder. But the weapon used to kill Terry has not yet been identified.

McCubbin said early reports of Tuesday's incident did not indicate that weapons were recovered or that suspects had been arrested.

"Unless guns are recovered, any suggestion that this incident is somehow linked to Fast and Furious is total speculation,'' McCubbin said. "But being that this occurred in the same general area brings back a lot of sad memories.''

The Brian Terry Station, formerly called the Naco Station, is located in Bisbee, in southeast Arizona about 210 miles from Phoenix.

None of the agents was immediately identified pending notification of relatives. The wounded agent was airlifted to a hospital, according to Crystal Amarillas, a spokeswoman for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol.

Tuesday's shootings came two weeks after the release of a federal inquiry into Fast and Furious, an inquiry prompted by Terry's 2010 murder.

As recently as last month, federal investigators expressed deep concern that 1,300 of the 2,000 weapons— many of them Ak-47 assault rifles — had not been recovered.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who helped launch the investigation into the flawed gun trafficking operation, said there is "no way to know at this point how the agent was killed'' Tuesday.

"But because of Operation Fast and Furious, we'll wonder for years if the guns used in any killing along the border were part of an ill-advised gunwalking strategy sanctioned by the federal government. It's a sad commentary."

Terry was the last Border Patrol agent killed by gunfire, but four others have died since then in traffic accidents, showing how treacherous the job and the terrain can be.

Agents Eduardo Rojas and Hector Clark were killed in May 2011, when they were tracking a group of illegal immigrants and their vehicle was struck by a freight train near Gila Bend, Ariz., according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a web site that tracks law enforcement deaths around the country.

Another agent was killed in a crash in July while patrolling near the border on an all-terrain vehicle near Fort Hancock, Texas, according to Officer Down website. A fourth was killed in July while assisting a disabled motorist on U.S. 90 near Cline, Texas.

Contributing: Alan Gomez; Cassondra Strande, who writes for The Arizona Republic

Harford County confronts deaths of four active duty lawmen - baltimoresun.com

Harford County confronts deaths of four active duty lawmen - baltimoresun.com

By Yvonne Wenger, The Baltimore Sun

5:23 p.m. EDT, October 1, 2012

Piled on Sheriff L. Jesse Bane's desk are stacks of unopened mail, and among the envelopes stuffed with condolences, is a black leather-bound Bible inscribed with gold lettering.

Harford County's top lawman has been wrestling with leading an agency of 290 sworn officers through tragedy unlike any it has endured in the last two centuries: the back-to-back deaths of active duty officers. Sgt. Ian A. Loughran died in the hours after he began to suffer a heart attack at the funeral of his mentee, Cpl. Charles Barton Licato.

About 13 miles from the sheriff's office in Bel Air, Aberdeen Police Chief Henry G. Trabert is leading his 40-person force through similar heartbreak. In the days after Officer Charles N. Armetta, fell 47 feet to his death in an off-duty accident, veteran Detective Mark A. Franklin passed away from a battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The four deaths came within a two-week span in September. And while Harford County was grieving, the area's tight-knit law enforcement community buried two more from within its ranks, a former sheriff and a retired state trooper.

"I struggle right now, wondering if there is more than I could have done and if there is more I can do," says Bane, a slim, rosy-cheeked man who has spent the last 37 years with the sheriff's office and has led it since 2006.

"When you have deaths that don't make any sense, you try to make sense of them. There was no chance for us to recover. Six in a row and I am starting to say to myself, 'Who's next,' or 'What happens if we have another one.' "

The agencies, though relatively small, get involved in high-profile crimes, including drug-dealing in the Interstate 95 corridor and the July kidnapping of Vi Ripken, the mother of Cal Ripken Jr. They say they'll continue to handle such cases despite the personnel losses, but can request help from other agencies if strains appear.

The sorrow of the unexpected, serial adversity offers a glimpse inside the brotherhood that exists in the ranks of law enforcement, especially within small agencies.

The brotherhood is a bond, the officials say. It develops over holidays spent away from family and in unlikely places: in a dark alley chasing a fugitive or at a domestic violence call with an armed, angry spouse.

The bodies of the fallen men were attended in 24-hour vigil by Aberdeen police and Harford deputies from the time of death to burial at the culmination of elaborate services featuring taps, processions and hundreds of uniformed officers.

At Armetta's service, his canine partner, Maverick, yelped repeatedly as an officer drove Armetta's cruiser toward the grave sight.

"We can separate a tragic crime scene from us, because it is a job, as much as it may hurt or as bad as it may look; this is personal," the straight-laced Trabert said, choking back emotion. "We can't get away from it. It's in our heart. It's in our mind.

"The guy's office was down the hall. I walk by it every day. That pain is for real."

Licato, of Rising Sun, was the first to die. The 34-year-old was killed early Sept. 6 along Route 1 near the Conowingo Dam after his car left the road for an unknown reason, slid down an embankment, and hit a pole and two trees before catching fire in a ravine.

Bane said Licato was likely heading home from work, but may have been following a lead on a felony warrant. Licato, who joined the sheriff's office in 1998, came from a family of officers. His father, Donald, is a former Baltimore homicide detective who retired from the Aberdeen Police Department less than a month ago. His brother, Donnie, is a deputy in Harford.

"He was a good, conscientious guy," said Sgt. Kevin Thomas, president of the Harford County Deputy Sheriff's Union. "He enjoyed making a difference in the community."

Licato was a bachelor who loved to play cards and work out with his dog, Gunner, a German shepherd rescue whose original owner was killed in Afghanistan.

"There was only one Charlie Licato," said Bane, who told stories of Licato's passion for the job and ideas to improve the organization.

Two days after Licato's accident, Armetta, of Joppa, was out celebrating his brother's upcoming wedding with about 10 men when a bus carrying them pulled over along Interstate 95 in Baltimore around 3 a.m. Some of the men had been wrestling on the bus, and Armetta, 29, pushed through the door and fell over the jersey wall, according to a police report.

Word spread quickly to his friends and co-workers. Trabert said that when he pulled up to the station within hours of Armetta's accident, he found officers out front crying.

"He just got married. He just had a child," Trabert said. "He just started a new position within the police department. Everything for Charlie was just coming together."

Armetta joined the department in late 2007 and recently revived its K9 unit with his 2-year-old partner, Maverick. The two got off to a rocky start — the dog bit the deputy chief during its first week.

"I told Charlie, 'I don't think this dog is going to work out.' He said, 'Chief, this is going to be our dog,' " Trabert recalled. "He worked with that dog, and when he got out of training, that dog was amazing.

Those two bonded like I have never seen."

Trabert said the department let Armetta's widow and their 1-year-old daughter adopt Maverick.

Next in the tragic line was Loughran, 43, of Pylesville. The 16-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office died at home Sept. 13, Bane said. The symptoms of his fatal heart attack began while he attended Licato's funeral hours earlier, according to the medical examiner's office.

Bane said Licato was "destined for greater things" in the agency. "He was very methodical. If he had you as a suspect, he was going to get you, sooner or later. You were going to get a conviction in court, because he was going to get the job done."

Loughran, who had also worked as a school resource officer at North Harford High School, was married and had a 2-year-old son. Thomas, the union president and a close friend of Loughran, said he was an introspective, intelligent and compassionate man, with a passion for Shakespeare and camping.

He had a good sense of humor, even if he needed to make himself the joke to get a laugh, Thomas said.

Franklin, who joined the Aberdeen force in 1999, died a day after Loughran's funeral. He had taken leave in January after being diagnosed with cancer, Trabert said.

"We expected him back," Trabert said. "He was a fighter. He never gave up and neither did we, not until the last day."

Franklin, 55, had been a part of the department's honor guard and SWAT team before establishing the criminal investigation unit about 10 years ago.

Trabert said Franklin was the "toughest man I know and the hardest-working man I know. He lived every moment, the way everyone should. When he was off the job, it was all about his family. When he was here, it was all about the job."

He was married and had three sons and a daughter. Outside of work, he loved to ride motorcycles, and was a skilled carpenter and electrician.

In addition to the active duty men who passed away last month, retired Maryland State Police Lt. Ronald C. Petty, 62, of Havre de Grace died Sept. 9 of multiple myeloma, and former Sheriff Theodore S. Moyer, 83, of Edgewood died Sept. 17 of pulmonary disease.

A black bunting shrouds the lettering outside the Aberdeen Police Department; in front of the sheriff's office building is a police cruiser draped with a black cloth.

Bane is re-evaluating the resources available to help officers cope with job stress, especially in light of Loughran's death to a heart attack. The sheriff's office has a crisis management team, a psychologist available for advice and a chaplain corps, among other resources.

"Being the sheriff, that takes on a new meaning to me; I am to take care of my people, I am supposed to be ready for these kinds of things. I am supposed to prevent these kinds of things," Bane said.

The office was so quiet the day after Loughran's death that Bane was tempted to tell everyone to go home, because deputies must be focused for high-stakes police work. The agency, established in 1774, had only lost three active duty officers until the recent tragedies, he said.

"As sheriff, I really started to worry," he said. "You've got to wonder what's going through their minds. You start to realize how fragile life really is. You can be here one minute, young, vibrant and gone the next."

Baltimore Sun reporter contributed to this article.
ywenger@baltsun.com

Tampa police shoot, wound man after traffic stop leads to 3-mile chase

Tampa police shoot, wound man after traffic stop leads to 3-mile chase

TAMPA -- 
Tampa Police say they were forced to shoot a suspect overnight after he led them on a 3-mile chase across Tampa.

Investigators say it started with a traffic stop for an expired tag at Hillsborough and Armenia avenues.


The man behind the wheel, 25-year-old Edward Thomas, sped away from the officer.

Investigators say that after Thomas hit a street sign in the 6900 block of N Coolidge Avenue, he jumped out of the car and ran into a wooded area.

A police helicopter and canines tracked Thomas, whom police say eventually came out of the woods.

Tampa police spokesperson Andrea Davis said Thomas refused to show his hands when officers demanded to see them.

"Officers asked him to raise his hands so they could see his hands," she said. "He was in a crouched position and didn't show his hands. The officers were in fear for their lives."


A criminal background check shows Thomas was out on a supervised release on a second-degree murder charge out of Plant City. His criminal record dates to 2004, with several arrests for battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.

At least one man who lives in the 6900 block of Coolidge Avenue witnessed the police shooting overnight.

Jesus Gort spoke with Bay News 9 and said he told his family to stay in the house, just before police opened fire.


"I just told my family to stay down because I didn't know what was going to happen," he said.


Thomas was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital and was treated overnight for a single gunshot wound.

Thomas’ mother, Rosetta Thomas, said her son was turning his life around because he didn't want to return to jail.

“And he told me this over and over, ‘Mom, I don't want to go back to prison. I'm here, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to do what I have to do,’” she said.

Police believe that mindset is what led to the crash and the officer-involved shooting.

Once Thomas leaves the hospital, he will be transferred to the Hillsborough County Jail.

The officer who opened fire will be put on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure when an officer discharges their firearm.

Salina police officer blind after shooting - SFGate

Salina police officer blind after shooting - SFGate

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A Salina police officer who was shot during a standoff last week lost sight in one eye.

Deputy Police Chief Carson Mansfield says Officer Chuck Huen faces additional surgeries after being shot in the right eye during the standoff.

Mansfield said the standoff began after officers responded to a report of a possible stolen car and/or domestic incident late Thursday. When they went into the home, they exchanged gunfire with 19-year old Marijon Gadson.

Officers retreated and Gadson was later found dead in the basement. Mansfield says Gadson likely was dead for much of the six-hour standoff and it is likely he committed suicide.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating.