People in Lacoochee knew what the tattoos on Alfredie Steele Jr. stood for.
They marked the violent ends of two close friends, deaths that sent him on a downward spiral amid a community's escalating distrust and contempt of law enforcement officers.
The tattoo on Steele's right arm - MAR - might be telling. Steele's close friend Michael Anthony Reed died in a car crash last month, with deputies in pursuit. The incident provoked rage against the authorities in the tiny Pasco community of Lacoochee - to the point that deputies were ordered to respond with two cars to any call for service there.
About 2 a.m. Sunday, not far from where Reed died, Steele fired a high-powered rifle toward a green and white Pasco sheriff's cruiser, deputies said. One bullet ripped through the rear of the car and into the back of Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison, a 30-year veteran deputy who was two weeks from retirement.
The 19-year-old surrendered to deputies Monday night after a tearful goodbye with family, was booked Tuesday on a homicide charge and then whisked to an undisclosed county jail "for his own protection," according to sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
According to an arrest affidavit, Steele talked with investigators after they read him his rights and admitted he fired the shot that killed Harrison.
At a news conference Tuesday, Sheriff Bob White offered little detail and said nothing about motive. But State Attorney Bernie McCabe said officials have "speculated all along" that Harrison's death was tied to Reed's.
It was clear Tuesday that the investigation was not over and that sheriff's officials were still concerned for the safety of officers. All patrols in the Lacoochee area were to be manned by two deputies.
Family and friends were shocked by Steele's arrest. They called him a role model who got good grades at Pasco High School and a peacemaker whose only involvement in fights was to break them up.
"When I heard about this, if somebody had told me this, I would tell them it was untrue," said Pasco High School assistant football coach Ricky Giles, for whom Steele played two seasons ago. "That it was the biggest lie you could ever tell."
Pasco honors student
By most accounts, Steele was no street thug.
Except for a routine traffic offense, his record was clean. He was an honors student at Pasco High School.
Alfredie Steele Sr., 42, said Tuesday that his son was a good kid.
"Fredie is real good people," the elder Steele said. "... Got along with everybody. I know he didn't cause any trouble. Anything he could do to avoid trouble, he did."
That's more than just a father's pride talking.
"He was always a lovable kid," said Giles, who is also a guidance counselor, "a kid that always brought happiness to everything around him. Never sad.
But then, his friends started dying.
Steele began to spell out his sadness on his arms.
Steele has the letters "MAR" tattooed on his right arm and "RIP" and "GRP" on his left.
"Everybody knew what they stood for," said Brittany Pope, 13. The initials stood for Michael Anthony Reed and Garion "Red" Pope.
Pope, Steele's close friend and football teammate at Pasco High was killed in a car accident in February.
Brittany is Pope's cousin. She said Steele, Reed and Pope were very close.
"They used to go everywhere together," Brittany said Tuesday. "Mike and Honcho (Steele) came around here a lot. They were like family to us."
Their deaths devasted Steele, Brittany said.
"He took it the hardest," Brittany said of the deaths. "He couldn't deal with it. He used to always come around here. Now you don't see him no more."
The death of "MAR'
On May 10, a sheriff's deputy tried to pull over Michael Reed after noticing the license tag didn't match the car he was driving. Reed fled, the deputy gave chase. Reed slammed into a tree and was ejected through the windshield.
As he lay fatally injured beside his white Chevrolet, a crowd started to gather.
Word of the crash had spread quickly through the neighborhood. The 75 to 100 people that came to the scene included Reed's family and friends. Many were furious that a sheriff's deputy had been chasing Reed when he crashed.
They were further angered because the deputy put a handcuff on Reed's wrist and because deputies would not let them get close to Reed.
The crowd yelled profanity and threats to the deputies.
Days later, sheriff's officials forbade deputies from responding alone to calls in Lacoochee.
Some in the neighborhood wear T-shirts in memorial to Reed. Mona Jackson, 24, sat on her front porch wearing one Tuesday.
"Everybody's got a shirt like this, everybody around," Jackson said.
Harrison is shot
Three weeks after Reed's death, Lt. Harrison was on what should have been a routine stake-out in Lacoochee, with about two weeks to go from retiring from a 30-year career.
Shortly after 2 a.m., there was a shot. Fellow deputies surveilling the Rumors nightclub checked on Harrison and found him dead.
Within a day of Harrison's death, deputies came looking for Steele.
According to arrest reports, the man who tipped investigators to Steele was his cousin, Nathaniel Daniel "Nate" Vanzant, a 23-year-old Lacoochee felon who lists the same addresses as Steele in court records.
On Monday night, patrol cars rolled into the community to take Steele from his family.
"Every bit of six or seven cops yesterday evening searched the trailer and searched the cars," said family friend Marvis Hambrick. "They even took a .30-.30 out of one of the cars."
The detectives stood by as the family hugged and cried, Hambrick said.
"They just put him in the car," she said. "Fredie was in the front seat."
Officials led Steele about 1 p.m. Tuesday to a video camera at the county jail in Land O'Lakes, transmitting his image to Pasco County Judge Debra Roberts in New Port Richey for his first court appearance.
He meekly raised a shackled wrist and swore to tell the truth.
Roberts found probable cause for the arrest on suspicion of homicide, and then asked Steele whether he had any money.
"No ma'am," Steele said, explaining that he didn't have a job and received money from his brother.
Dade City criminal defense lawyer Kimberly Coward stood beside him, invoking Steele's right to remain silent. She asked that authorities cease attempts to question him further.
Roberts ordered Steele held without bail.
Word of an arrest brought little comfort to Harrison's family.
"The only thing my family and I are doing right now is praying for that family," said Sandy Harrison, the lieutenant's daughter.
She knew Steele's family and said she and her relatives planned to meet with them Tuesday.
"Justice is justice and it has to prevail, but no, it doesn't bring my daddy back," Harrison said.
Hambrick's daughter, Fay, sympathized with both families.
She and her siblings grew up with the Steele children.
"It's terribly sad for Bo's family. They lost their dad and the neighborhood lost a great guy," she said. "It's also sad for the community and for Fredie's mother. She lost her son and we lost (someone) like a brother. It's a lose-lose situation."
