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Truck Driver Fatally Shot While Waiting In His Rig

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By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2008

TAMPA - Truck driver Roger Earl Lee took off his shoes in the cab of his truck while waiting to make a delivery early Friday, only to be shot moments later, Tampa police said.

Investigators think the Georgia truck driver was robbed about 4:40 a.m. Friday outside the Clorox Products Manufacturing warehouse at 3601 E. Columbus Drive. The windows in the truck's cab were down, his wallet was open and its contents were scattered around the cab, police said.

Lee, 65, of Nicholls, Ga., had kicked off his shoes, possibly to nap, as he waited to deliver 26 pallets of bleach, police said.

He had arrived shortly after 4:30 a.m., but a security guard told him deliveries were not accepted until 8 a.m., police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.

Moments after Lee returned to his truck, the guard heard a shot and screams for help, Davis said. Lee ran toward the guard and collapsed.

Detectives were reviewing surveillance video from businesses around North 36th Street and East Columbus Drive in hopes of finding the assailant.

Police department records show that three robberies have been reported in that area within the past 12 months. In one, on March 18, a cab driver wrestled with a passenger at North 31st Street and East Columbus Drive after the passenger pulled out a gun and demanded money, a police report states. The cab driver was not injured.

Lee was married for 40 years and had two adult children, said his son Chad Lee, 37. Roger Lee had worked for National Freight for about 10 years and liked to build model airplanes on weekends.

The Clorox Co. is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible for Lee's death.

Chad Lee said in a telephone interview that he often worried about his father driving long distances.

"I wanted him to quit," he said. "I never thought that he would die this way. ... He was a gentle man, a good man. He never hurt nobody."

Reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib

.com.

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