Cop Dead In Tampa Robbery, Shootout

At least one bank robber fatally shot a police officer during a chase Friday and then took a hostage at a nearby apartment complex, city police said.

Police Chief Bennie Holder said another officer was grazed in the leg in the shootout. That officer was transported to Tampa General Hospital where information on the officer's condition was not immediately available.

Holder said police do not know if there is more than one robber involved in the incident. Some residents were helped out of their second-story apartments with a ladder while police told others to stay put.

Holder said hostage negotiators were in contact with the gunman and the suspect's mother was trying to talk him out.

Police surrounded The Crossings apartment complex in south Tampa.

The incident began shortly before 11 a.m. when police were notified of a robbery at a Bank of America just blocks from the apartment complex. One shot was fired in the bank, but no one was hit, Holder said.

Holder said officers were searching for the suspects when they spotted the their car and then radioed to say they were chasing them.

"Sometime during that pursuit there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and three of my officers," Holder said.

The slain officer was shot three times, Holder said. The chief said no names would be released until family members and fellow officers could be notified.

"Hopefully the suspect will do the right thing and give up without anyone else being hurt," Holder said.

Resident Karen Breit said the fatally wounded officer lay in the parking lot for some time as the suspect stormed an apartment and prevented other officers from getting close.

"This scares me. This guy could have come into any one of our houses," Breit said.

The death of the officer is the first for the department since the deadly 1998 rampage by Hank Earl Carr that took the lives of Tampa Police Detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers.

Carr shot the officers to death when they took him into custody for the shooting death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son. Carr fled and killed Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Crooks before killing himself.

Within two hours of Friday's shooting, the flag outside the police department headquarters was lowered to half-staff.

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