NO mercy!
Posted on 06/29/2010 7:49:32 AM PDT by DCBryan1
TAMPA — Two Tampa police officers were killed Tuesday after being shot during a traffic stop, police said.
A massive search for two suspects was launched as the city reeled from the second fatal police shooting in less than a year.
The shooting suspect, the passenger in the car, already was wanted on an outstanding warrant, police said.
Officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis, both 31, were shot in the head at 50th Street and 23rd Avenue, said Mayor Pam Iorio after a news conference.
Kocab died at Tampa General Hospital. Curtis died several hours later, according to police.
Curtis' family has chosen to keep his body on life support so his organs can be harvested, police said.
Curtis pulled the car over at 2:15 a.m. because it did not have a visible tag, police said, and soon discovered that one of the occupants was wanted on an arrest warrant for a worthless check out of Jacksonville.
Kocab was called for backup before the shooting occurred, which police said is standard procedure when someone is found to be wanted.
Neighbors said they heard shots fired and heard the vehicle peel off. The shooting suspect had apparently run through an apartment complex at 3212 N 50th St., said Rose Dodson, 32, a resident there.
Police were combing that area side by side looking for evidence.
Another witness said she heard four or five gunshots. Chris Arline, 49, said she was buying a candy bar at a nearby Shell gas station when she heard the gunfire. Her son thought it was a truck.
"That's not a truck," she said. "That's bullets."
Arline left the store and saw paramedics giving CPR to a person on the ground.
The shooting happened so quickly the officers did not have a chance to radio for help. They were shot at close range, said Police Chief Jane Castor, and it did not appear they had time to return fire.
Curtis ran the driver's licenses of both suspects before the shooting, police said. Police were not sure if the licenses were authentic.
A 911 call six minutes after the car was stopped was the first notice police had that the officers had been shot, police said. A passerby stumbled on the scene and found the officers shot, police said.
Police were looking for a 1994 red Toyota Camry they said was involved in the shooting. The car was stopped at 50th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The car pulled over at 50th Street and E 23rd Avenue.
Police said the car was driven by a woman and the male passenger fired the gunshots.
The passenger was described as a black man in his mid to late 20s, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 150 to 170 pounds. He had a short afro and was last seen wearing brown shorts and a white T-shirt and a black vest. No description of the woman was released.
Detectives issued an urgent plea for witnesses to step forward. They want to talk to anyone who was in the area of N 50th Street and E 23rd Avenue about 2:15 a.m.
Anyone with information is asked to call (813) 231-6130.
Dozens of police and Hillsborough sheriff's deputies were searching for the suspects.
They set up a perimeter that stretched from MLK to Interstate 4 and 40th to 50th streets. Traffic was blocked in both directions for hours. The northbound lanes were reopened by 7:30 a.m.
Several hours after the shooting, about 100 cadets from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office dressed in grey formed a line and searched the crime scene for evidence.
Castor said at a second news conference that the suspect's "best bet" is to give himself up.
"We'll take the search nationwide if we need to," Castor said. "We're going to find him."
Kocab leaves behind a wife who is nine months pregnant, Iorio said during a news conference at Tampa General Hospital. Kocab joined the Police Department about 14 months ago from the Plant City Police Department.
Curtis, the officer on life support, has a wife and four young children, Iorio said. A former Hillsborough County jail deputy, he became a Tampa police officer 2006.
Kocab's wife was in Kissimmee, and Curtis' family was in Sumter County.
Curtis has four children: Austin, 9; Sean, 6; Tyler, 5; and Hunter, 8 months.
"We are doing everything we can to help the wives and the family members," Iorio said. "It's just a very bleak day for us in Tampa."
After the news conference Iorio burst into tears when recounting the call she received at 3 a.m. from Police Chief Jane Castor.
"She said 'Mayor, I've got really bad news. We've had two officers shot and one is dead.'"
As soon as she saw it was the chief calling she knew it was bad news, Iorio said. She remembered getting a similar call from now-retired Chief Steve Hogue when Cpl. Mike Roberts was shot and killed last year.
Roberts was shot to death as he stopped to question a homeless man. Humberto Delgado has been charged with first degree murder in that August 2009 shooting.
Iorio said it is "heart-wrenching" to watch relatives and cousins grieve the deaths of Kocab and Curtis.
"It's just been overwhelming grief inside the hospital," she said.
It takes an HUGE amount of restraint and professionalism to not blow these scumbags away and place “drop guns” in their hands and claim, “They were coming right for us!” in defense.
Sickening ... both shot in the head at close range.
God rest the souls of the officers, and
comfort their grieving families. One victim’s
wife is due to deliver their first child next
week. Heartbreaking ..
Mark the minutes, Dontae Rashawn Morris.
~~~~~~~~~~
Authorities have located a woman wanted for questioning in the deaths of two Tampa police officers.
###
The female suspected of being involved in the shooting that left two police officers dead is in custody, Tampa Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.
Cortnee Nicole Brantley, 22, was taken into custody shortly after noon at the Bristol Bay City View condominiums.
Detectives found her in apartment 202 after they received a tip.
Police named Brantley a ‘person of interest’ after two Tampa Police officers were gunned down early Tuesday morning.
Brantley is being transported to sheriff’s department headquarters for questioning.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_tampa/female-suspect-in-tampa-police-tragedy-in-custody
NO MERCY!
.....It would be unfortuante if Nicole gave a full confession, and then, as detectives leave and the camera/mic turned off, "commits suicide" with an unmarked firearm that must have been "missed in a pat down".
....it's happened before, ya know?
WFLA 970 said the wife of the slain officer went into labor.
Tragic day in Tampa. I hope they fry the bass turds
OMG ... the shock and grief.
Lord, be with her for a safe delivery and baby.
Any word about the vicious killer ?
No word except they caught the girl.
Thanks.
~~~~
Live updates: $30,000 reward offered in Tampa officers’ slayings
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jun/29/290422/tampa-police-officer-shot-suspect-sought/news-metro/
$30,000. Heck, I’d pay 30k to have them skinned alive, rubbed in salt, and buried next to a fire ant mound.
Police Chief Jane Castor/Mayor Iorio presser
http://110link.com/tampa-police-officer-shooting-news-conference-complete.html
.
From the Tampa Police Memorial (before caputure of 1st suspect)
.
WTSP coverage page
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/crime/story.aspx?storyid=135083
Video of apartment complex barricade and search
NO mercy!
Brantley had better be talking if she knows what’s good for her.
Charlie Crist’s statement was very weak, imo.
“This morning, two brave and courageous Tampa police officers were caught in the line of fire during a routine traffic stop...”
He should have said, “two brave and courageous Tampa police officers were cruelly and viciously murdered during a routine traffic stop by a career criminal who should have been put away years ago.”
Officer Kolcab’s wife has gone into labor. Losing a husband and having a baby on the same day. Wow.
One of my workers knows the girl who was the driver in this senseless crime. He tells me she one of the stupidest people he knows. He is not surprised at all, she fell into such a mess.
He also knows the POS guy but only because he lives in the neighborhood.
It was very interesting that he was actually very concerned about driving home and being stopped for DWB. He's about the same age and build of the POS cop killer and knows the cops are PISSED.
Officer Kocab’s widow has just given birth to their first child.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/29/florida-police-officers-widow-baby-hours-killing/
Please keep this thread updated with information as it’s received in the Tampa area.
Three officers I know from S. Florida took off this morning to help in the manhunt for this animal. Let’s hope he tries to run after he’s apprehended, I’d hate for him to be inconvenienced sitting on death row for a few years.
Hopefully, he winds up in the same condition as the cop killer in Lakeland, Florida
"Angilo Freeland — who was suspected of fatally shooting the deputy after being pulled over for speeding Thursday — was hit 68 times by the SWAT team members' shots, the examination released Saturday showed.".........................."I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that's all the ammunition they had," Judd said. "We were not going to take any chance of him shooting back."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216898,00.html
They should have gone to get more ammo.
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