News

Review is due in killing of suspect

The Sheriff's Office will discuss the use of force the day an officer was killed.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff Writer
Published September 11, 2007

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Since the deaths on Aug. 15, the Sheriff's Office has conducted an investigation into whether SWAT members used appropriate force in shooting Michael Allen Phillips at his family's Brandon home.
	[AP photo]

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TAMPA - The Hillsborough Sheriff's Office will meet with prosecutors Wednesday to present its conclusions about the fatal shooting of Michael A. Phillips, the man accused of killing Sgt. Ron Harrison, according to Sheriff's Col. Gary Terry.

Since the deaths, the Sheriff's Office has conducted an investigation into whether SWAT members used appropriate force in shooting Phillips at his family's Brandon home.

Terry declined to discuss the Sheriff's Office conclusion, saying that prosecutors will review the findings before any information is made public.

Sgt. Harrison, 55, died Aug. 15 after he was shot in his unmarked patrol car on an east Hillsborough County road. He was a 27-year Sheriff's Office veteran.

Authorities think he was killed by Phillips, a man with a long record of arrests who felt animosity toward law enforcement.

Harrison had just left a DUI checkpoint in Brandon when he was shot inside the car.

He died shortly after the shooting.

Terry did say that investigators are certain that Phillips was alone in his vehicle when Harrison was shot.

Investigators also concluded that Rosa Bradley, Phillips' ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, was not involved in the shooting.

Bradley is the one who told deputies that Phillips might be involved in Harrison's shooting.

The biggest mystery remains, Terry said.

"We haven't been able to identify a motive for the shooting," he said.

Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 11, 2007, 01:09:17]