Tampa Tribune
TAMPA, Fla. — You could hear in their voices that this was no ordinary call: A fellow police officer had been shot.
The police cruisers screamed through the Tampa night, hitting speeds as high as 87 mph as they weaved in and out of traffic. Their worst fears were confirmed when they reached Nebraska Avenue and East Arctic Street on Aug. 19: Cpl. Mike Roberts was on the ground, bleeding, his assailant nowhere to be found.
“Oh, Jesus Christ, hold on,” one of the first officers to arrive said. “Oh, Jesus Christ, he’s been shot.”
The sounds and images of their arrival were among the three hours of video prosecutors released Monday under a judge’s order. The video was taken from the dashboards of the officers’ cruisers; the sound recorded by their microphones.
The recordings provide a vision of the horror and chaos that surrounded Roberts’ slaying. Written versions of the events were released Dec. 9.
Officer Otis Calhoun was one of the first to reach him. He’s seen leaping from his car and rushing to Roberts. The corporal was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, but a round had found an opening under his armpit, perforating his heart and lungs.
“Hold on, brother, hold on,” Calhoun said over and over. Roberts’ moans could be heard over Calhoun’s open microphone.
Officer Vincent Gericitano arrived seconds later.
“Come on, Mike, we’re with you,” he kept repeating. “Stay with me, Mikey, stay with me.”
The officers worked frantically, administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation until Hillsborough County emergency technicians arrived minutes later, called by Gericitano.
They told the EMTs to be careful with their colleague. “He’s one of ours,” one officer said.
Gericitano’s microphone went silent as he accompanied Roberts in the ambulance.
The videos show a parade of cruisers arriving and leaving, sirens blaring and lights flashing.
They showed officers rushing to secure the scene, ferrying crime scene tape and medical kits from their trunks - officers looking on as others tried to revive Roberts.
Roberts, 38, a decorated officer with a young son, was pronounced dead at Tampa General Hospital about 10:50 p.m.
Witnesses told officers of a large black man with dreadlocks who attacked Roberts even after the corporal tried to subdue him with a Taser. Witnesses said the man stood over the fallen officer and fired.
“I wanted to run over him,” Octavia Mack told an officer. “I hope he’ll (Roberts) be all right. But one officer said he ain’t looking too good.”
Authorities say Roberts stopped Delgado because he was acting oddly.
The tapes also showed officers as they sped through the neighborhood looking for Roberts’ attacker or taking up stations as the police locked down the neighborhood.
Humberto Delgado Jr. soon was arrested behind a woodpile in a nearby yard, a pistol in his pack and an assault rifle at his feet. A Taser probe dangled from his hair.
Delgado has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault on an officer, among other charges. He faces the death penalty and has pleaded not guilty.
On the recordings, the police officers are heard talking about the suspect’s arrest. One officer is asked whether he was able to get any rounds off. “I didn’t know he was the bad guy,” was the reply.
Another is heard saying an officer told him “they beat the ... tar out of him.”
A canine officer was asked whether her dog bit him. She said it tried.
The videos were released to the media and the public but only can be viewed at the clerk of the circuit court’s office; no copies are allowed.
Circuit Judge Anthony K. Black said that will allow the public to access to the evidence but spare Roberts’ family from being confronted by repeated replays of the images.
Copyright 2009 Tampa Tribune