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Hillsborough Deputy Earns Office's Highest Honor

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 20, 2008

TAMPA - Deputy Malachi McCoy, who ended a gunman's rampage in northwest Tampa in June, will receive the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's Medal of Honor at an awards ceremony in September.

It is the highest award bestowed by the office.

On June 7, Jorge Orlando Bello Garcia, a former truck driver who recently had separated from his wife, drove to the Carrollwood rental home where the couple had lived and fatally shot her, a family friend and a Hillsborough County fire captain.

When deputies stopped him minutes later in his pickup, he shot Deputy Arturo "Art" Lence in the lower torso and Deputy Raymond Wilson in the arm. Bello, also known as George Bello, was trying to wrest Wilson's firearm away from him when McCoy ran up and killed Bello by shooting him in the head, the sheriff's office said.

Lence remains out on medical leave, and Wilson is back at work, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said today.

McCoy, 29, has been with the sheriff's office about eight years.

Malachi McCoy had dreamed of being a policeman since he was 15 and a student at Leto High School in Tampa. That's when he joined the sheriff's office Explorer's Post No. 238, a program that gives youngsters an inside look at law enforcement.

After graduating from high school, McCoy became a county jails community service officer.

He soon enrolled in the sheriff's office academy and was a reserve officer. He became a full-fledged deputy in 2000.

The awards ceremony will be held Sept. 9 at the sheriff's office training division, 1409 N. Falkenburg Road.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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