By Mike Wells
The Tampa Tribune
Related: Fla. sergeant shot sitting in his patrol car
BRANDON, Fla. — A career lawman who threw himself into his work and a 24-year-old man arrested 19 times.
Sgt. Ron Hamlin Harrison and Michael Allen Phillips couldn’t have been more different.
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Now Hillsborough County sheriff’s investigators are trying to find out what brought them together, what made Phillips fire a .45-caliber handgun into the patrol car Harrison was driving while on DUI enforcement duty shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
They say Phillips killed the 55-year-old sheriff’s deputy with two shots to the upper body. Phillips died shortly afterward in a shootout with lawmen at his home nearby. Phillips got off more than 10 shots; two snipers needed just one shot each to kill him. He was hit in the chest.
Investigators said they have no motive.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff David Gee said he didn’t know of a connection between Harrison and Phillips.
“I can’t rule that out, but I don’t know,” Gee said.
“He was a thug, I can tell you that.”
Investigators gave this account of the morning’s events:
Harrison contacted dispatchers at 12:38 a.m. as he drove north from Kings Avenue and Lumsden Road to inform them he was wrapping up a DUI checkpoint.
It was the last contact made by Harrison, a veteran of almost 28 years with the Hillsborough sheriff’s office.
He was headed east on Lumsden, preparing to turn north on Kings, when shots rang out, the driver of a nearby car reported.
Harrison’s unmarked patrol car clipped the witness’ vehicle and went out of control. The deputy activated his emergency lights, crossed the median and crashed into a tree about a half-mile away.
“We believe he was trying to get himself to a hospital,” Gee said. “It was the kind of severe wounds that would have [made him] quickly incapacitated.”
Harrison was taken to nearby Brandon Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Gee said Phillips probably was in a pickup when he shot Harrison, although deputies haven’t confirmed that. The window of Harrison’s unmarked vehicle was rolled down and unbroken, leading Gee to speculate that Phillips pulled up alongside the car and signaled Harrison to open his window.
“One wound was not a survivable wound,” Gee said. The bullet hit him just beneath the armpit.
A Tip Comes In
Within minutes, the sheriff’s office received an anonymous phone call from a woman who said a man she knew shot an officer three times. Deputies traced the call to Rosa Bradley of Riverview, Phillips’ ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child.
She provided an address about a mile from the crash scene, at 1707 Village Court. Deputies arrived to find the man had barricaded himself inside.
The first deputy at the scene made contact with Phillips’ mother, Regina Van Amburg, who said she was afraid of her son and that there was a 4-year-old inside with her. Van Amburg and the child left the home.
Attempts were made to negotiate with Phillips, but he went to a second-floor window twice, firing shots at deputies.
“The conversations were very short,” Gee said. “His answer, after he would speak, was gunfire.”
The bullets struck a deputy’s vehicle and another vehicle parked at the home.
“I authorized deadly force be used,” Gee said. “He was shot and killed by SWAT officers at the scene.”
Deputies Shawn Dugan and Robert Carr, who were involved in the shooting, have been placed on administrative leave with pay pending review.
Brandon traffic was rerouted as deputies investigated the scenes of the two shootings. Lumsden between Kings and Parsons Avenue was closed to traffic until shortly after 9 a.m. North and south traffic on Kings remained closed until late morning.
His voice choking with emotion, Gee said, “He was a good guy, a good officer with a lot of years.”
He said Harrison’s funeral probably will not be held until at least next week because he had relatives out of state.
Wednesday evening, Harrison’s family and colleagues shed tears as his name was etched in the monument to fallen Hillsborough law enforcement personnel. More than two dozen deputies, their badges partially covered by a black band, stood in line outside the sheriff’s operations station in Ybor City.
Deputy Felix Moret went to the front of the monument, made the sign of the cross and wiped away tears.
“He was very brave,” Moret said. “He put people first. He loved the job and was an excellent man.”
Neighborhood Reacts
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Larry Conner lives across the street from 1707 Village Court and said he was awakened by gunfire Wednesday morning.
“I was just hearing popping, like pow, pow, pow,” he said
He started turning on the lights at his house until a deputy came to his back door and told him to turn them off.
“It sounded like a war zone,” Conner said. “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through.”
Conner went from his living room to his bedroom seeking safety and finally hid in a closet with his cat, Roxy. Conner said he did not know Phillips well but occasionally checked out the family’s garage sales.
Conner said the gunfire started as soon as deputies arrived.
“As soon as they pulled in, he started firing,” he said. “He had a death wish. He wasn’t trying to get out of this alive.”
Conner said Phillips was doing more shooting than the deputies.
Other neighbors said Phillips had caused trouble in the neighborhood.
He and his friends often sped up and down the streets, said Wayne Thomas, who lives about two blocks away on Tradewinds Drive.
“He thought he was a badass,” Thomas said.
Don Zahn, 73, who also lives on Tradewinds, said he knew the family in passing and often was greeted by their Chihuahua on his neighborhood walk.
“It’s really sad,” Zahn said. “I hate to see a policeman or any young man lose his life.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (813) 247-8200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.
Copyright 2007 The Tampa Tribune