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DUI Checkpoint Dedicated To Sergeant's Memory

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 15, 2008

Updated: 08/15/2008 09:36 pm

Ron Harrison

TAMPA - To remember a sergeant lost a year ago to gunfire, deputies and officers will hit the streets tonight performing a job their colleague considered his life's work.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Ron Harrison, 55, died early on Aug. 15, 2007, after being shot while en route to a DUI checkpoint near State Road 60 and Kings Avenue.

In his honor, the sheriff's office, Florida Highway Patrol and police from Tampa, Plant City and the University of South Florida will set up a checkpoint tonight for impaired drivers and also patrol for them in eastern Hillsborough County.

"It's an important night for Sergeant Harrison," said Deputy Larry Morrell, who was supervised by Harrison. "We're looking for closure, not in the negative sense, but in the positive sense of the word. We had a sorrowful year of remembrance. Now it's time to reflect on the positives Sergeant Harrison did for the community and for law enforcement. Thanks to Sergeant Harrison, he brought attention to the DUI laws."

The operation runs from 10 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Saturday.

Another checkpoint and heightened patrol is planned for 10 p.m. Saturday through 5 a.m. Sunday, the sheriff's office said.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said Friday's enforcement operation seemed like a fitting way to honor Harrison, who supervised Operation 3-D, a multiagency program that targets drunken driving.

After Harrison died, Sheriff David Gee recalled Harrison's work with the program by saying, "He took that job and made it his life's work."

Harrison had set up the checkpoint a year ago as a training exercise to show other law enforcement officers how to conduct such an operation, the sheriff's office said.

About 12:40 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2007, he had left the checkpoint to get coffee at a convenience store on Kings Avenue south of Lumsden Road. He was driving east on Lumsden, preparing to turn north on Kings, when a gunman later identified as Michael Allen Phillips, 24, shot him twice in the chest, the sheriff's office said.

Harrison's patrol car clipped another motorist's vehicle and went out of control, crossing the median and crashing into a tree. He was pronounced dead at Brandon Regional Hospital.

Phillips died a short time later in a shootout with law enforcement officers.

Harrison's survivors include four children.

Reporter Josh Poltilove and News Channel 8 reporter Lynn Carson contributed to this report. Information from the Tribune archives was used in this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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