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Tampa 'Officer Down'
By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 12, 2007
TAMPA - Three Tampa police officers and a bail bondsman found Kevin Dexter Hunter on Friday morning in the home of a woman he was accused of running off the road months ago. They had a warrant for his arrest.
"Show your hands! Show your hands!" they said.
Hunter, 38, responded by firing at the officers with a large-caliber revolver, striking Master Patrol Officer John Armao in the shoulder and grazing his cheek, police said.
The wounded Armao ran from the house, at 711 N. Castle Court, and collapsed in the street.
"Officer down," came the call at 6:31 a.m. Other officers and paramedics rushed to the area to help. Guns drawn, they set up a perimeter around the house.
At 6:53 a.m., the officers heard another shot from Hunter's gun. This time, he had turned it on himself. It was the final violent act in a life filled with violence and incarceration.
Armao, 40, underwent surgery at Tampa General Hospital for extensive injury to his shoulder, police said. Mayor Pam Iorio and Police Chief Stephen Hogue spoke with him at the hospital.
"There was a lot of blood," Iorio said, adding that she thanked Armao for his service and "told him how much we appreciate him and all he did."
Three weeks ago, Hunter walked out of a Hillsborough County courtroom after learning he faced a long prison sentence for violating a domestic injunction, said Tanya Dugree, the attorney who represented him that day. A convicted felon, Hunter had been sought on a May 2 warrant related to his November arrest on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, aggravated assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm and violating a domestic violence injunction.
"I feel horrible that an officer was injured and he took his own life," Dugree said Friday after hearing about the shooting from a reporter. "He should have just turned himself in or surrendered."
Dugree said she had asked Judge Wayne Timmerman on April 17 to withdraw her as Hunter's attorney because she was frustrated with Hunter's lack of cooperation. Hunter left during the hearing.
"He had given up," she said. "He just was really discouraged because of him being a career violent felony offender. … I couldn't help him anymore."
Friday's shooting erupted a few hours before Tampa police gathered for an annual memorial service to remember officers killed in the line of duty.
"It really brings everything in perspective," said Officer Brian Bishop, whom Armao trained as a rookie in 1998. "As sad as it is to say, it keeps people from becoming complacent and makes them realize - not only other officers, but citizens - how dangerous the job is and how hard of a job this really is."
Armao joined Tampa police in 1989 after working for Gulfport Police Department for three years. He is married and has a 24-year-old son and two daughters, ages 10 and 6, police said.
Officer Earned Commendations
Throughout his career, Armao has earned commendations for his work ethic and professionalism, his personnel file shows.
From 2003 through late January, he worked in the gang-suppression and gun unit, where he tested firearms, traced weapons and testified about ballistics evidence, records show.
Armao returned to patrol duty in late January for a daytime work schedule, offering more stability for his family, said his former gang-unit supervisor, Sgt. Kenny Norris.
Norris was relieved Friday afternoon. He initially feared Armao was dead.
"I was very worried," Norris said. "I fell on my knees and prayed immediately."
Armao's personnel file repeatedly notes he wore body armor when in uniform. He was not wearing a protective vest during Friday's shooting, said Lt. Paul Lusczynski, a police spokesman. That would not have affected the shoulder wound, he said.
Friday's shooting is the second shooting incident for Armao in Tampa. Public records show he was one of eight officers who fired upon 17-year-old Michael Lentz in 1998 after Lentz took his parents hostage at gunpoint and pointed a firearm at police. Each officer fired between one and 13 shots, with Armao shooting five times, according to the investigation. Prosecutors ruled the use of force was justified. Lentz was sentenced to state prison for multiple charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
Lengthy Criminal History
Public records show Hunter has been in prison or on probation almost constantly since he was 17. He was released from a state prison in March 2006 after serving most of a four-year sentence for drug violations.
His recent problems with Tampa police began in November. He tried to run the mother of his toddler, Roshawnda Rhanes, and her then-13-year-old son off the road and rammed their car on East Bougainvillea Avenue, a report states.
Police searching Hunter's car found a .45-caliber handgun. He was arrested but released from jail Dec. 11, records show.
Thursday, police and a bail bondsman went to Rhanes' home on North Castle Court looking for Hunter and to serve the May 2 warrant. No one was home, so police returned Friday.
Armao and Officers Loring Burrell and John Aleman accompanied a bail bondsman to the house about 6:10 a.m., Lusczynski said.
Rhanes, 31, answered the door but was uncooperative, he said. The bondsman entered the house, and the officers followed.
They found Hunter around the master bathroom and master bedroom, where he refused to show his hands at their command, Lusczynski said. The lieutenant said someone returned fire after Hunter shot at police, but he did not know late Friday which officer had.
Police said Rhanes and a child ran from the house during the shooting. Minutes later, as officers set up a perimeter around the house, Hunter shot himself, police said.
There were small children in the home at the time, police said. No one else was injured. The children now are in protective custody.
Detectives charged Rhanes with a felony related to being an accessory after the fact. She was being held Friday night at Orient Road Jail. Bail was set at $7,500.
After Armao was shot, he ran for cover behind a jeep owned by Daniel Pitts. "Are you all right?" Pitts said he asked.
"No, man, I've been shot," Armao responded.
Pitts said he wanted to drag the officer into his house, but Armao refused. Pitts' wife applied a towel to the injuries to try to stop the bleeding.
"It was terrible," Pitts said.
After the gunshots, neighbor Carlos Diaz recounted, he hustled his two young daughters out of their bedroom to a safer place in the house.
He was glad no one else was injured. "I couldn't believe that someone would do something like that," Diaz said. "Guns waving everywhere. I mean, you never know - those guns could travel. Those bullets could travel right through a house with no problem."
Reporters Chris Echegaray, Thomas W. Krause and Elaine Silvestrini; editor Howard Altman; News Channel 8 photojournalist Chris Taylor and News Channel 8 reporter Chip Osowski contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or -email-.
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