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Standoff results in shots, arrest

A police confrontation with a convicted felon involved multiple gunshots and the temporary closure of the southbound lanes of Bruce B. Downs.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 8, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough Sheriff's investigators had looked all week for Rene Borrero, a convicted felon wanted in connection with recent burglaries.

Deputies found Borrero on Friday morning near the University of South Florida, but they say he did not go into custody willingly.

Only after a rush-hour confrontation involving two deputies, multiple gunshots and a crying 3-year-old did authorities finally put Borrero in handcuffs.

"Who knows why he finally stopped," said sheriff's office spokesman J.D. Callaway. "But he dropped to the floor. He knew it was over."

The tense and very public incident began shortly after 9 a.m. along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Sheriff's detectives got a tip that Borrero, 25, would be dropping his girlfriend off at work in north Tampa, Callaway said.

They staked out the area and waited until Borrero dropped her off. Then - thinking he was alone in the northbound Nissan, which had tinted windows - they closed in on the car when they saw a break in traffic near 131st Avenue.

Instead of pulling over when deputies in two patrol cars surrounded him, Borrero put the Nissan in reverse, said Callaway.

The Nissan hit a deputy's patrol car and another vehicle. When two detectives got in front of the Nissan, Borrero accelerated toward them, Callaway said.

The detectives - Mark Bright, 39; and Brian Suttle, 35 - fired several shots into the Nissan as Borrero drove it across the median into southbound traffic along Bruce B. Downs, Callaway said. Borrero stopped the Nissan about 100 feet ahead, got out and surrendered.

That's when deputies looked inside the shot-up Nissan and discovered Borrero was not, in fact, alone.

His girlfriend's 3-year-old son was in the back seat, crying and cut by shattered glass - but fortunately not seriously injured.

"He had a small cut over his eye from glass that flew when the shots were fired at the car," Callaway said. "He went to UCH (University Community Hospital), and now he's back in Mom's custody."

Authorities did not release the name of the child or his mother. The civilian whose vehicle got hit was not injured.

Deputies shut down the southbound lanes of Bruce B. Downs for three hours after the incident, detouring drivers to 131st Avenue. The northbound traffic was funneled into one lane.

Borrero also had cuts on his face from flying glass and was treated at UCH before being transported to the county jail.

He was booked into the county jail on the recently issued warrants, which charge him with three counts of burglary, one count of grand theft and one count of stealing property.

Charges from Friday's confrontation with deputies are pending.

Callaway said one of the charges could be possession of a firearm by a felon. Investigators found a gun tucked between the console and the driver's seat, he said. They were still processing the scene Friday afternoon and had not yet determined whether the gun was loaded.

State records show Borrero was released from state prison seven months ago, after serving nearly five years for attempted armed robbery, heroin possession, armed aggravated assault, carrying a concealed weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Bright, a 9-year department veteran; and Suttle, an 8-year veteran, are on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting.

"The luckiest part of this," Callaway said, "is that no deputy was hurt."

-- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 8, 2005, 19:25:38]