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By STEVE THOMPSONA ceremony Friday honors Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison, who was shot and killed in the line of duty.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Since a sniper's bullet killed Pasco Sheriff's Lt. Charles "Bo" Harrison, his family has been showered with pins, plaques, photographs, medals, awards, flowers, prayers and thanks.
During a ceremony Friday morning, Sheriff Bob White presented Harrison's family another gesture of appreciation: the Sheriff's Cross. The medal is given to family members of deputies killed in the line of duty.
All the support has been a comfort, said Harrison's oldest daughter, Sandy. But it can't fill the void. "I'd give it all back for my daddy," she told a packed audience in the County Commission chambers.
"This has been difficult," said Sandy Harrison, 31. "It's been the longest four months and 16 days of our lives." She asked the audience to keep praying for her family, and please, not to forget her father. Then she broke down.
"Oh, God," she repeated in heaves. She cried.
Her father was 57, a 31-year veteran Sheriff's Office lieutenant, when he was shot while on duty June 1.
During the Sheriff's Office quarterly awards ceremony, White also presented Harrison's family with a captain's badge, signifying Harrison's posthumous elevation in rank.
"Our heart goes out to the family . . . and to the family here at the Sheriff's Office, in what has surely been the most trying time of this agency," White said.
White also awarded several law enforcement officers with Life Saving Medals during the ceremony.
Deputies Jeremy Colhouer and Sascha Vanderwaall helped save two injured motorists when their vehicles crashed head-on and burst into flames.
Deputy Thomas Kurinzi saved a neighbor who suffered a heart attack. Kurinzi performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Deputy Lane Winters and FBI Special Agent Lawrence Wolfenden helped save a motorist after she was driving about 40 mph and crashed into a tree. She was suffering from a diabetic shock and her car was on fire.
St. Petersburg Police Officers Troy Achey and Anthony Corio saved a 10-year-old boy when a tunnel he had been digging collapsed on top of him in Port Richey.
White also awarded several Special Recognition Certificates.
Detective Jeffrey Peake led an investigation that resulted in the arrest of a suspect in a rash of burglaries.
Cpl. Scott Grant, a school resource officer, was recognized for "his innovative leadership in the creation of programs" for Pasco school children.
Jeff Jeter was awarded a Citizen Special Recognition Certificate for "acting without hesitation and without regard to his own safety" in helping a deputy take a burglary suspect into custody.
After the ceremony, Sandy Harrison and her sister, Michelle, talked about their father.
The one who made red Kool Aid so sweet they would have to leave room in their cups for more water. The one who refused to take his uniform to the cleaners because "he could do it himself for free." The one who always found coins in his pocket when grandchildren came looking.
"I miss my daddy every day," Sandy Harrison said. "I think about him every day."