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Man turns himself in after two-day search

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 13, 2005

TAMPA - The all-out hunt for suspect Eugene Jermaine Betts began before dawn Monday, with the pop of bullets and the shouts of a veteran Tampa police officer hit in the ankle.

The search ended quietly Tuesday afternoon, when Betts walked up to the information desk at the Orient Road jail - his mother, grandmother and two clergy members by his side - and surrendered.

Betts, 22, hugged his family. Then he shuffled forward as deputies led him inside, said the Rev. Evan Burrows, assistant pastor at the First Baptist Church of College Hill.

"He didn't say much," said Burrows. "He maintained his innocence in the shooting. He was afraid for what was going to happen next."

Deputies booked him on two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, two counts of aggravated armed assault on an officer and one count of being a felon in possession of a gun. He also was charged with failing to appear in court on an earlier case of grand theft auto, jail records show.

Betts' surrender at 1:55 p.m. came three hours after authorities announced a $6,000 reward - $1,000 from CrimeStoppers and $5,000 from the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force - for information leading to his arrest.

And it brought to an end the two-day search by Tampa police, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies and U.S. Marshals Service agents.

"Obviously it's a tremendous relief to have someone as dangerous as this off the streets," said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

McElroy said Betts' family members grew weary of the constant presence of law enforcement officers, who since Monday closely watched the homes of Betts' relatives and friends, thinking he might go to them to hide.

Tuesday morning Betts' grandfather, Russell Raines, called Abe Brown Ministries, run by the Rev. Abe Brown, who is also pastor at the First Baptist Church of College Hill. The Tampa organization helps at-risk youths and provides transportation so that people can visit loved ones who are incarcerated.

Raines wanted Brown to take his grandson to the jail, but Brown had a dental appointment. So Brown called Burrows around lunchtime and asked him to drive to a home on Columbus Avenue near 52nd Street, where Betts was staying with a relative.

In a two-car caravan, Burrows and Betts' mother and grandmother in one car, Betts and Pastor Randy Dean of Hope Center International Ministries in another, they made their way to the jail at 1201 Orient Road.

"We called when we got close to tell them we were coming," Burrows said. "They told us to go right up to the information desk. So we did."

Lisa Alfonso, spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said no one will get the reward money because Betts turned himself in.

The search for Betts began when a Tampa police attempt to pick up Betts on an outstanding automobile theft warrant ended in a shootout.

St. Petersburg police detectives had asked Tampa officers to pick up Betts on the auto theft warrant. They said they wanted to talk to Betts about last week's death of a 20-year-old shooting victim mysteriously dropped off at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.

When Tampa officers confronted Betts at 3:30 a.m. Monday at the Windermere Apartments in Riverview, Betts fired a .38-caliber Colt pistol as he ran from the scene, according to the Sheriff's Office. One bullet hit Sgt. Gene Strickland, a 14-year department veteran, in the ankle.

Strickland was treated at Tampa General Hospital and released within a few hours.

Betts is being held without bail in the jail. His criminal history dates back to his teenage years and includes convictions in Hillsborough County for cocaine possession, firearm possession and violently resisting an officer, according to state records.

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

[Last modified July 13, 2005, 00:08:08]