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Shooting Shocks Neighborhood

By KEVIN BRADY | TBO.com

Published: August 15, 2007

Standing outside her home Wednesday evening, Shanda Bell recalled Michael Phillips as a smart young man who had a problem with anger.

"You could tell he was no dummy, but you could also see in his demeanor that he was a hothead," said Bell, who lived across the street from Phillips on Village Court. "Like when he was with friends you could see it didn't take much to get him riled up. It was if he always had something to prove."

Authorities say Phillips shot and killed Hillsborough County Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Harrison early Wednesday. Phillips was killed in a shootout with police at his home later.

Bell has lived in the small neighborhood of about 100 homes off Kings Avenue for six years. Phillips and his mom moved in about three years ago, she said.

"You would sometimes see a police car come to the house, and he would admit it was over something he did. He would tell you he had a problem with anger. But he was never disrespectful toward me."

Hector Baez lived a few houses away from the Phillipses on Village Court and remembers seeing Michael Phillips playing football with children in a nearby park.

"He was a good neighbor. He didn't bring any trouble into the neighborhood."

Chris Nelson awoke to a knock on his door from a sheriff's deputy at 2 a.m. warning him to take his wife and young daughter to the back of their house.

"We sat back there for about two hours," Nelson said. "Nothing even remotely like this has happened in this area before."

Nelson didn't know Phillips personally but saw him around the neighborhood. "He was here and there and there seemed to be a lot of people coming in and out of his house."

Tom Panks thought something strange was going on in the area when he heard his dogs barking at 2 a.m.

"I heard a couple of gunshots and then looked out the window and saw a helicopter. At first I thought it was a transformer blowing up, but then I saw the police and knew it was something more."

Douglas Pringle was heading to work at 4:30 a.m. and knew something was amiss.

"There were so many police cars; I thought it was an act of terrorism or something. Nothing like this has ever happened here before," Pringle said. He has lived in the neighborhood for seven years.

"It's normally a very quiet neighborhood," said Rafael Rivera, who lives two blocks from where the deadly shootout occurred.

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