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Hillsborough Sheriff's Office Negotiation Team Earns Honor

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 14, 2008

Updated: 07/14/2008 06:56 pm

TAMPA - For 10 hours last year, members of the Hillsborough sheriff's crisis negotiation team were on the phone with an enraged man holed up in a fortress with access to an endless supply of guns and ammunition as the lives of five hostages hung on every act.

One miscalculation, one refusal of the gunman's demands, one wrong word, and five people inside the Shooting Sports gun range could die.

Today, police agencies across Florida recognized the work the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office did during the tense hours Jeffrey Lane Dudney held five people hostage.

"It was the most intense situation ever in eight years," Hillsborough sheriff's Sgt. Frank Greco said today after Sheriff David Gee was given the Florida Association of Hostage Negotiators' award for team of the year.

Greco is team leader of the sheriff's office nine-member Hillsborough Crisis Negotiation Team.

The association, made up of negotiation teams from about 100 agencies in Florida, picked the Hillsborough team for the job it did with Dudney.

It is the fourth time in the association's 11 years that the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office received the team of the year award. The office received the award in 2004, 2005 and 2007, Greco said.

Greco was the assistant team leader when Dudney took five people hostage in the gun range at 7811 N. Dale Mabry Highway. He was on the phone with the gunman for the first eight hours of the crisis.

From a negotiator's view, it was a horrible situation. Dudney was barricaded in a building Greco described as a fortress. There were bars on the windows. The steel back door was welded shut. There were surveillance cameras so Dudney could see the police activity but no one could see inside.

"We had no clue what part of the building he was in," Greco said.

To make it worse, Dudney had access to hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Solving the crisis by sending in a SWAT team was a horrible option.

"It needed to be negotiated," Greco said.

Dudney made demands and set deadlines — sometimes of only 60 seconds. He lined the hostages on the floor and threatened to shoot them.

"He would tell me to pick which one I wanted him to shoot," Greco said.

After more than 10 hours, Dudney killed himself, and no hostages were harmed.

"There's never been a more stressful situation for me," Greco said.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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