wildcard
4th July 2010, 02:42 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/us/04police.html?ref=us
Man Charged With Killings of 2 Officers in Florida
http://www.baynews9.com/static/articles/images/2010/morris-manhunt-710000_rdax_676x456.jpg
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 3, 2010
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man accused of killing two Tampa police officers during a traffic stop surrendered after detectives spent more than a day negotiating with an associate of his, police officials said Saturday.
The suspect, Dontae R. Morris, 24, turned himself in at a police station around 10:30 p.m. Friday, the police said. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab early Tuesday.
“Honestly, I can never remember a point in my life where I felt more relieved,†said Chief Jane Castor of the Tampa police.
Mr. Morris was denied bail in a court appearance on Saturday and ordered to remain in jail.
The police said that Mr. Morris was also a suspect in two other killings, and that he was charged early Saturday in one of them, the May 18 shooting of a man outside his family’s Tampa apartment. A statement from the Tampa police said ballistic tests indicated that the same gun was used in the officers’ killings on Tuesday.
Hundreds of officers in tactical gear had combed apartment buildings, vacant homes and even waterways in an intense search for Mr. Morris after the officers’ deaths. Detectives received more than 400 tips.
The police statement said the surrender came nearly 30 hours after detectives began negotiations with an associate of Mr. Morris’s. That dialogue eventually led to Mr. Morris turning himself in, and the associate will be entitled to a $100,000 reward that had been offered for information leading to the arrest, the statement said.
A short time after Mr. Morris surrendered, the police said that his 21-year-old brother had been arrested early Saturday at a Tampa motel on charges of domestic violence and possession of cocaine and marijuana.
News of the surrender and charges came just hours after a wake for Officers Curtis and Kocab drew hundreds of mourners to a church. Photographs of Officer Curtis with his wife and four sons were shown on large screens. Officer Kocab was pictured with his wife, who is nine months pregnant.
Funerals for the two officers, both of whom were 31, were held Saturday.
At around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, Officer Curtis pulled over a man and a woman in a red Toyota Camry. The officer called for backup after seeing that the man was wanted on charges of writing a bad check, the authorities said. Six minutes after Officers Curtis and Kocab approached the car’s passenger side, a witness called 911 to report that they had been shot. The officers were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The car’s driver, Cortnee Brantley, was charged Friday with a federal count of witnessing a felony and not reporting it.
In the May 18 shooting in which Mr. Morris was also charged, Derek Anderson, 21, was killed outside his apartment after a man tried to take his backpack, detectives say.
Sheriff David Gee of Hillsborough County said Friday night that Mr. Morris was also considered a suspect in the June 8 death of a father of four who was found badly hurt on the side of a road and died while being taken to a hospital.
The authorities were looking into why Mr. Morris was released from prison in April and not transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., where warrants had been issued in the bad-check case. Corrections officers informed Jacksonville authorities of Mr. Morris’s impending release last October, prison records showed. Sheriff John Rutherford of Jacksonville said his office was looking into the matter.
Man Charged With Killings of 2 Officers in Florida
http://www.baynews9.com/static/articles/images/2010/morris-manhunt-710000_rdax_676x456.jpg
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 3, 2010
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man accused of killing two Tampa police officers during a traffic stop surrendered after detectives spent more than a day negotiating with an associate of his, police officials said Saturday.
The suspect, Dontae R. Morris, 24, turned himself in at a police station around 10:30 p.m. Friday, the police said. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab early Tuesday.
“Honestly, I can never remember a point in my life where I felt more relieved,†said Chief Jane Castor of the Tampa police.
Mr. Morris was denied bail in a court appearance on Saturday and ordered to remain in jail.
The police said that Mr. Morris was also a suspect in two other killings, and that he was charged early Saturday in one of them, the May 18 shooting of a man outside his family’s Tampa apartment. A statement from the Tampa police said ballistic tests indicated that the same gun was used in the officers’ killings on Tuesday.
Hundreds of officers in tactical gear had combed apartment buildings, vacant homes and even waterways in an intense search for Mr. Morris after the officers’ deaths. Detectives received more than 400 tips.
The police statement said the surrender came nearly 30 hours after detectives began negotiations with an associate of Mr. Morris’s. That dialogue eventually led to Mr. Morris turning himself in, and the associate will be entitled to a $100,000 reward that had been offered for information leading to the arrest, the statement said.
A short time after Mr. Morris surrendered, the police said that his 21-year-old brother had been arrested early Saturday at a Tampa motel on charges of domestic violence and possession of cocaine and marijuana.
News of the surrender and charges came just hours after a wake for Officers Curtis and Kocab drew hundreds of mourners to a church. Photographs of Officer Curtis with his wife and four sons were shown on large screens. Officer Kocab was pictured with his wife, who is nine months pregnant.
Funerals for the two officers, both of whom were 31, were held Saturday.
At around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, Officer Curtis pulled over a man and a woman in a red Toyota Camry. The officer called for backup after seeing that the man was wanted on charges of writing a bad check, the authorities said. Six minutes after Officers Curtis and Kocab approached the car’s passenger side, a witness called 911 to report that they had been shot. The officers were pronounced dead at a hospital.
The car’s driver, Cortnee Brantley, was charged Friday with a federal count of witnessing a felony and not reporting it.
In the May 18 shooting in which Mr. Morris was also charged, Derek Anderson, 21, was killed outside his apartment after a man tried to take his backpack, detectives say.
Sheriff David Gee of Hillsborough County said Friday night that Mr. Morris was also considered a suspect in the June 8 death of a father of four who was found badly hurt on the side of a road and died while being taken to a hospital.
The authorities were looking into why Mr. Morris was released from prison in April and not transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., where warrants had been issued in the bad-check case. Corrections officers informed Jacksonville authorities of Mr. Morris’s impending release last October, prison records showed. Sheriff John Rutherford of Jacksonville said his office was looking into the matter.