Wednesday marked a sad day for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the county as a whole and those who knew Sgt. Ron Harrison. A 27-year vet of the HCSO, Harrison was gunned down yesterday morning by a Brandon criminal who had an extensive rap sheet. And, according to today’s Tribune, the killer may have been a white supremacist as well.
The last time a Hillsborough deputy was gunned down during duty was in 1981.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sgt. Harrison briefly this summer and talked to him a few times by phone while preparing for the DUI checkpoint story I did last month. He was very helpful, always willing to talk and even gave me his cell phone number if I had any questions (or got lost on my way to the checkpoint). And he seemed to have a real passion for combating drunk drivers in Hillsborough County.
Harrison was in his car conducting a DUI patrol when the 24-year-old gunman, Michael Phillips, shot him twice in the upper body. Afterwards, Phillips barricaded himself in his mother’s Brandon home and opened fire on the deputies surrounding his house. Two SWAT team snipers shot and killed him.
My condolences go to Harrison’s family and his other “family†at the HCSO. Funeral services start at 1 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 21 at the Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa.
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2007.