Saturday, January 5, 2013
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, local law enforcement officers will be at the ready at Hillsborough County elementary schools as students return to classes after the winter break.
- POLICE & FIRE
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Saturday, January 5
As elementary school students throughout the Greater Brandon area head back to school Jan. 7, so, too, will sheriff's deputies and Tampa police officers be in attendance at Hillsborough County schools. And they’ll stick around until the end of the school year as well. “School safety is the utmost priority,” said Lt. Chad Chronister of the sheriff’s office’s community outreach division. With 91 elementary schools in unincorporated Hillsborough County alone, Chronister said the sheriff’s office will have its work cut out for it, but it’s up to the challenge. “We have a great sheriff,” he said. “He doesn’t care what it costs . . . just get it done. We’re going to do whatever it takes." Hillsborough deputies aren't alone in their quest to …
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Zachary McCarthy, a student at Bloomingdale High, who studied voice at Music Showcase in Brandon, died Jan. 2 after an accident at Natures Way and Golf Meadow Boulevard in Valrico. He is being remembered by a broad section of the community.
A Celebration of Life Service has been scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 6, for 16-year-old Zachary Douglas McCarthy, who died Jan. 2 after losing control of his car near the intersection of Natures Way and Golf Meadow Boulevard. The 6 p.m. service is set for the chapel at Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, at 2101 Bell Shoals Road. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to the Bloomingdale High School Music Department, according to McCarthy's online obituary at Southern Funeral Care. McCarthy, who lived in the Bloomingdale area of Valrico, was a student at Bloomingdale High, where he was active in the band, chorus and Ambassadors show choir, and a member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Riverview. He is surived …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Plant City man who allegedly stole first from Ace Hardware, then a truck from a work crew at the Brookside Manor apartments. Chase gave way through FishHawk to Keysville Road.
A Plant City man has been apprehended after a chase with deputies ensued after he allegedly stole items from Ace Hardware in Brandon, then a truck from a work crew at the nearby Brookside Manor apartments, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Glenn Maxwell, 30, of 1036 Wiggins Road, faces charges of grand theft auto, burglary of a vehicle, felony criminal mischief and fleeing and eluding. Accoring to the report, the crime spree started Jan. 2 at around 9:10 a.m., when Maxwell allegedly stole items from Ace Hardware, at 865 East Bloomingdale Ave., in the shopping center anchored by Bealls, Publix and Walmart. Confronted by the store manager, Maxwell reportedly gave the manager his identification, but then …
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office seeks the public’s help in determining the identity of an armed robber wearing a hooded Hollister jacket caught in action on surveillance camera Dec. 28 at Rodeo in Dover.
Armed with a handgun, a man wearing a hooded Hollister jacket reportedly demanded cash and fled with an undisclosed amount of money from the Rodeo store in Dover on Dec. 28, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The armed robber reportedly entered the store, described as a discount department store, at approximatley 7:25 p.m., then demanded money from a clerk. "While the clerk retrieved the money, the suspect directed two other employees to lie on the floor," the report notes. After getting the cash, the thief reportedly fled on foot from the store, at 14710 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. ______________ Armed Robber Description The thief is described in the report as follows: ______________ Help Break The…
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Deputies identified suspects and reported 179 charges following a cockfighting ring bust in Plant City on New Year’s Day, 2013. Charges included cruelty to animals and betting on animal fighting.
In all, 179 charges have been filed after deputies busted a cockfight in Plant City on New Year's Day, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Eleven people face charges, including two people who face 81 charges each (see chart below). According to the updated sheriff's report, deputies, backed by air-service, arrived at the scene, at 513 Greenway Drive in Plant City, and witnessed a cockfight under way. "In the backyard, there was a cockfighting ring with one dead rooster inside, with another live rooster actively attacking it," the report notes. "Three other roosters were located nearby, with two found in a recently dug hole." In all, there reportedly were more tha 50 roosters being raised on the property…
Cockfighting in Plant City on New Year’s Day drew quick responses from deputies and Hillsborough County Animal Services workers, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Nine adults have been located and detained after deputies busted a cockfight in Plant City on New Year's Day, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office reportedly received information early in the day that cockfighting was under way at 513 Greenway Drive, north of U.S. Highway 92, east of Wilder Road. "When deputies arrived, several adults fled on foot from the scene," according to the post-noon report. Roosters were found at the scene dead and alive, in cages, according to the report. Hillsborough County Animal Services had been notified and representatives were enroute to the scene. ________________
Sunday, December 30, 2012
A man, with his girlfriend, seeking repayment on a debt confronted Brandan Berg in his Plant City driveway, where Berg's friend brandished a gun and started shooting, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office report.
Two men facing a collective nine charges were taken into custody after shots were fired at the Plant City home of one of the men, Brandan Berg, who was confronted by a third man over an allegedly unpaid debt, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. According to the report, Gabriel Navarrete, 21, with his girlfriend, Diamond Bautista, 20, attempted to seek repayment of a debt from Berg, 21, who lives at 3405 Keene Road in Plant City. At Berg's home at the time was his friend Raymond Anthony Cook-Underwood, 19, who during the confrontation brandished a semi-automatic pistol "and fired four rounds into the air and ground," according to the report. "He then shot Navarette in the thigh." Paramedics arrived at the …
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Louis Kuilan-Maysonet is dead after a post-midnight shooting at the Boomerang Martini Bar in Brandon, where an argument over his girlfriend’s lost purse ensued moments earlier, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The fatal shooting at the Boomerang Martini Bar in Brandon on Dec. 22 was preceded by an argument inside the nightspot, next door to the long-closed Borders bookstore, over a woman's lost purse, according to a report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The purse reportedly belonged to the the girflriend of Louis Kuilan-Maysonet, 28, who started arguing with Christopher Gonzalez-Cartagena, 29, in a fight that spilled over into the parking lot and would later claim Kuilan-Maysonet's life. The report notes that the argument started at 3 a.m., as the bar was closing. Still, "it is unclear if the two men were feuding over the missing purse," the report noted. "At that point, Kuilan-Maysonet lifted his shirt and flashed a handgun in…
School resource deputies with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office are stationed at middle and high schools throughout Hillsborough County. Will elementary schools be next?
In the wake of the mass shooting Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is looking at long-term ways to better protect the county's elementary schools. According to sheriff's spokesman Detective Larry McKinnon, the sheriff's office is working with the Hillsborough County School Board to develop safeguards to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring at a local elementary school. McKinnon said the sheriff's office is developing a committee to look into ways to better protect elementary students, including the possibility of posting permanent deputies at elementary schools. The sheriff's office already has school resource deputies assigned to middle and high schools throughout the…
Thursday, December 20, 2012
A heightened security presence at local schools in the wake of the Newtown massacre caused a Mango student to hand-deliver a note of thanks after a chance meeting with a corporal from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Law enforcement officers were on duty at local schools this week to show a united force of support in the wake of the Dec. 14 Newtown school shootings in Connecticut. That's what turned a chance meeting between Hillsborough County Sheriff's Cpl. Lance Connors and a Mango Elementary School student into a touching moment to remember. It happened Dec. 20, at around 7 a.m., when Connors, in uniform, reportedly was on patrol for a fourth day at the school's student drop-off area, in the Greater Brandon area of Seffner. The young girl, named Karmen, reportedly walked by him as he said, "Good morning." She then stopped, turned around, reached into her backpack and withdrew a folded piece of notebook paper. The note, with a hand-drawn heart, …
Lynch
8:41 pm on Saturday, January 5, 2013
Just more wasted money to make people feel good. We had a shooting and every one becomes paranoid about it. The chance of being in a school shooting are probably about 1 million to 1. Now we have kids wearing bullet proof backpacks but if you are shot in the head or chest that backpacks are useless Maybe we should release all the prisoners and then use the prisons as schools since they already … more ›