Ex-girlfriend: Shooting suspect was unstable, but a good person

By Saundra Amrhein, Times Staff Writer
Published August 15, 2007

Michael Phillips' ex-girlfriend, Rosa Bradley, said Wednesday afternoon that the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office knew about his violent streak but failed to take adequate action until he killed someone.

"They didn't want to do anything about it until something happened to one of their own,'' she said during brief remarks outside her family's home in Brandon's Heather Lakes neighborhood.

She said she and her family called the Sheriff's Office multiple times in the past two years, including once when Phillips shot at the home.

"They were here when he peeled out of here,'' she said.

And now, she said, a good person is dead.

"Mike was mentally unstable, but he was a good person, too," Bradley said.

Bradley's father, Carey Bradley, said that his daughter woke them up shortly after midnight to say that Phillips told her he had just killed a cop and was coming for them next. His wife looked out the window and saw Phillips in his car, but then Phillips sped off.

"We're happy to be here,'' Bradley said about the fear that something could have happened to him or his wife. "We haven't slept all night.''

"It's just a tragedy, you have a brilliant police officer dead,'' he said.

Phillips also left behind a 3-year-old son, Carey Bradley's grandson.

"Try explaining that one," Carey Bradley said about the young boy.

Carey Bradley said that Phillips was mentally disturbed but that he didn't know more about his problems. He said once Phillips showed up at the house looking for Rosa, Phillips' ex-girlfriend, and Bradley confronted him with a gun, but Phillips still woudn't back down. Carey Bradley said he called the sheriff's office several times on Phillips on the past few years.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 20:52:34]