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Law enforcement personnel mass on SR 50 just East of I - 75 where Carr held a hostage inside the Shell gas station. [Times photo /Toni L. Sandys]

Following the story through the Times

he day began with a little boy who wanted to learn to swim. Within hours he was dead, and the day exploded into the deadliest ever for Tampa Bay police officers. As a more complete story of Hank Carr's rampage emerges, so do fateful details - from the tiny handcuff master key that dangled from Carr's neck, to the final tense hours of negotiations as a suicidal Carr held a gas station attendant hostage and wrote letters to his girlfriend.

[NOTE: Stories are listed in reverse chronological order -- the first reports of the shooting are at the bottom]

Bernice Bowen reacts as the medical examiner describes the wounds he found on her sons face and head during his autopsy of her son. [Times photo: Tony Lopez]

Latest stories
Debate on Bowen's role lingers
As Bernice Bowen's sentencing nears, some wonder if her fate would be different if Hank Earl Carr lived. [7/5]

Bowen enters final guilty plea
Bernice Bowen admits her neglect led to the death of her son, Joey, shot last year by Hank Earl Carr. [6/4]

Kayla Bennett won't testify
Prosecutors decide there could be "residual trauma" for the 6-year-old if she testifies against her mother, Bernice Bowen. [6/3]

Bernice Bowen pleads guilty to neglect
But she still faces one more charge: that by neglecting her son, she caused his death. [6/2]

Bowen guilty of aiding Carr’s killing rampage
Jurors say they took no satisfaction in finding that Carr's girlfriend was an accessory after the fact. [5/29] Story

Daughter may testify against Bowen in neglect case
TAMPA -- A jury may have delivered a verdict Friday, but the courtroom drama isn't over for Bernice Bowen. And the next case could bring her own 6-year-old daughter back to Tampa to testify against her. [5/29]

Amid sobs, Bowen tells her side of story
A jury deliberates the fate of a woman accused of lying to protect the man who killed three officers and her son. Story

Carr's guns filled boy's life, trial shows
The man who killed Bernice Bowen's son -- the man prosecutors say she protected -- had the boy play with weapons, witnesses say. [5/27/99] Story

2 words, one theme in trial of Bowen
If only: They're the two saddest words in the language, and they get used frequently in conversations about Hank Carr and his girlfriend Bernice Bowen and the four people left dead on that hideous day, May 19, 1998. Mary Jo Melone column

Prosecution: Evasion answered plea for help
Testimony shows that Bernice Bowen did little to help officers. However, the defense tries to shift the blame for the officers' deaths to Hank Earl Carr. Story [5/26]

Six jurors chosen in Bowen case
Three men and three women will hear opening statements today in the case against Bernice Bowen. [5/25] Story

Cop killer's girlfriend goes on trial
The case is expected to center on Bernice Bowen's actions after police told her that her boyfriend, Hank Earl Carr, killed three officers. [524] Story

A year of grieving
Two widows and a fiancee attempt to cope with life in the wake of Hank Earl Carr's deadly rampage, which took the lives of two veteran police detectives and a rookie highway patrol trooper a year ago. [5/16] Story

'I wish I could have ... taken the bullet'

Bowen's jailhouse interview. [Times files]

In a jailhouse interview, Bernice Bowen talks about the day Hank Carr killed her son and three police officers. (June 20, 1998) Story

Trooper's widow revisits a memory
A month after Trooper James Crooks' murder, his fiancee attends highway patrol graduation. Only last year, she had shed tears of joy as her recruit graduated to a job he loved.

No evidence slain child had been abused
TAMPA -- An autopsy of Joey Bennett found no signs the 4-year-old had been abused in the months before being fatally shot in the face, according to a state investigative file released Friday.

Hank Earl Carr kept in arms through private gun sales
TAMPA -- More than two dozen guns have been linked to Hank Earl Carr by Tampa police trying to determine what role Carr's girlfriend played in their ownership. (June 12, 1998)

Judge sets bail at $50,000 for Bernice Bowen
TAMPA -- A judge set bail Monday for Bernice Bowen, whose boyfriend last month killed her small son, three law enforcement officers and then himself. But Bowen, charged with child abuse for exposing her children to Hank Earl Carr, still may not get out of jail. (June 9, 1998)

Sympathy comes from all corners
The mailbox at Tampa police headquarters has been filled with tender cards and letters to a department suffering the loss of two of its own: detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers. Though most were condolences from citizens and law enforcement officials, a few stood out among the rest. (June 3, 1998)

Support flows for officers' families
TAMPA -- From the smallest gesture -- a thank-you, a stranger's hug, a Beanie Baby for the daughter of a murdered detective -- to the largest cash donation, last week's rush of community support has overwhelmed the Tampa Police Department. (May 30, 1998)

• 'I would like to say that I deeply apologize'
  Here is the text of a hand-written statement given to the Times by Bernice Bowen. It was dictated by Bowen to her sister, Rose Hayes.
• Children help teacher say goodbye to 'Trooper Brad'
  SPRING HILL -- Courtney Dill couldn't take it anymore.
• Anger over rampage zeroes in on Bowen
  The Public Defender's Office says it cannot represent the girlfriend of the man who killed three officers and her son.

Killer's girlfriend arrested
Bernice Bowen is charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse for leaving her children with Hank Earl Carr. (May 29, 1998)

Trooper's radio blared warning: 'Stay away'
Hank Earl Carr managed to throw the officer off guard, ambushing him on an exit ramp, Highway Patrol officials say. (May 28, 1998)

• Widow lashes out at Carr's girlfriend
  In their first public comments, the widows of the detectives killed by Hank Carr express thanks for support from police and from the community.

5-year-old Kayla to remain in foster care
A judge rules that the state has until July 9 to investigate the child's relatives. (May 27, 1998)

• Girlfriend's silence on Carr scrutinized
  "She had plenty of opportunities to tell us what a monster he was," says a police spokesman.

'I buried my dad and my uncle'
Ricky Childers' son talks about losing his father as well as Randy Bell, the man who was like an uncle to him. (May 26, 1998)

• Family observes final rites for Carr
  Joey Bennett, the child Hank Earl Carr shot before killing three law enforcement officers, is expected to be buried later this week in Ohio.
• Scholarships named in honor of officers
  Long after the pain of having four Tampa Bay law enforcement officers killed this spring subsides, Arthur F. Kirk Jr. wants their names and their memories to live on.

May 24, 1998

Tampa police officer Steven Cragg, salutes as the procession heads east on Kennedy to Channelside Drive. [Times photo: Dan McDuffie]

Honoring the fallen
Four days after Ricky Childers and Randy Bell were killed in a murderous rampage, thousands gather with their families and co-workers to remember and mourn them.

• A procession of honor and pain
  
• Detective's death is her loss, too
  
• Deltona Elementary School mourns slain trooper
  

May 23, 1998

The flag covering Trooper Crooks' casket is presented to his mother, Vivian Crooks, on Friday in Clewiston. [Times photo: Tony Lopez]

Thousands bid trooper an emotional goodbye
James Crooks, 23, is the first of the three officers killed in Hank Carr's deadly rampage to be laid to rest.

• 'I hated him,' hostage says
  Despite her fear of being shot, Stephanie Kramer kept Hank Carr calm and asked to be freed after 41/2 hours in the Shell station with the killer.
• One moment, one bullet snuff out a child's dreams
  TAMPA -- Joey Bennett dreamed the dreams of any 4-year-old boy whose world revolved around Barney and Batman.
• Remember the man behind the badge and his dream
  CLEWISTON -- At first glance, it is a town that seems a long way from sorrow. Why, then, are so many strong men weeping?
• Transcripts reveal last words of a killer
  Hank Earl Carr seemed to spend the hours leading up to his death working up the courage to kill himself.
• Carr gave child abuse investigators 'uneasy feeling'
  TAMPA -- In the months before Tuesday's shooting of Joey Bennett, state child abuse investigators received two allegations that Joey and his sister were abused by their mother's boyfriend, Hank Earl Carr.
• Memorial service schedule
  Honor Guard
• 'They just look like they're resting'
  TAMPA -- They came by the hundreds Friday to bid the two detectives goodbye, officers in blue uniforms with black bands over their badges, women in heels and sunglasses, men in dark suits, a wailing child in white patent leather shoes, an older woman leaning on a walker.

Flowers, flags and other offerings adorn the the bronze police hat on the base of the statue at the memorial site at theTampa Police Dept. on Franklin Street. [Times photo: Dan McDuffie]

May 22, 1998

Survivors, mourners left to grieve
A child watched as her brother was killed and now waits with strangers to learn her future. A construction company owner saw a state trooper murdered, then risked himself to avenge the death. A convenience store clerk dressed the killer's wounds to save her own life.

• The funerals
  Today and Saturday, the area says goodbye to Trooper James B. Crooks and Detectives Rick Childers, Randy Bell.
• Girlfriend of gunman was no stranger to violence
  Bernice Bowen's family says she had a long history of being victimized before she met Hank Carr.
• How many Hank Carrs are out there?
  The bay area's transient nature and a lack of officers are blamed for backlogs of arrest warrants.
• Handcuff keys are cheap and easy to buy anywhere
  Manacles that use a universal key are cheap and convenient, but they make criminals' escape simpler and arrests more complex.
• Officers across U.S. reflect on Tampa Bay area shootings
  In Hopkinton, N.H., police gathered around a computer this week to find out the latest details from the Internet about the deaths of three Tampa Bay area law enforcement officers.
• Police memorial becomes focus for grieving
  An outpouring of sorrow over three officers' deaths has turned the memorial into an impromptu shrine.
• Carr's death self-inflicted, autopsy says
  An autopsy of Hank Earl Carr confirmed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.