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Deputy: My Faith Was My Shield

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By RAY REYES and JOSH POLTILOVE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2008

TAMPA - A week ago, Deputy Malachi McCoy was reading the Bible and came upon Psalm 28:7. He was immediately drawn to one line in the verse: "The Lord is my shield."

Using a silver paint pen, the son of a preacher inscribed those words on the black steel plate of his bulletproof vest.

On Saturday morning, during a gunman's rampage in northwest Tampa that left four people dead and two Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies wounded, the Biblical verse offered additional protection, McCoy said.

"The bullets were coming past me," he said. "For me personally, I was shielded."

Saturday's events began when Jorge Orlando Bello Garcia, a former truck driver who recently 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 scuffling with Wilson and trying to wrestle his firearm away from him when McCoy ran up and killed Bello by shooting him in the head, the sheriff's office said.

"I'm sorry it had to happen," McCoy, 28, said Monday. "But I'm glad I was there."

The deputy said he could not go into details about Saturday's shooting because it is under investigation. McCoy did say that what he had done has sunk in and that, "I'm fine with it."

"He already killed some people," he said. "He tried to kill us."

McCoy has been with the sheriff's office for almost eight years. He is on paid administrative leave, standard procedure when a deputy is involved in a fatal shooting.

The deputy's father, the Rev. Paul McCoy of Fellowship Bible Church in Zephyrhills, said that although the Ten Commandments state "Thou shalt not kill," his son did what duty required.

McCoy, 71, said his son reacted instinctively because of his law enforcement training.

"I do believe that what Malachi was doing was a service to the citizens of the county," said Paul McCoy, who spoke to the Tribune Monday during a trip to Nashville, Tenn. "That's been his goal in his life - to be in law enforcement and to enforce the laws of the people."
Malachi McCoy's dream of being in police work started when he was 15 and a student at Leto High School in Tampa. That's when he joined the sheriff's office's Explorer's Post No. 238, a program that gives youth an inside look at law enforcement.

McCoy went on a ride-along program with a patrol deputy and knew what he wanted to do with his life.

"I got the bug," he said. "That was it for me. Everything fell into place."

After graduating from high school, McCoy became a community service officer for the county's jails. He soon enrolled in the sheriff's office academy and was a reserve officer. He became a full-fledged deputy in 2000.

"I was lucky enough to do the job I wanted to do," said McCoy, who was at St. Joseph's Hospital on Monday visiting Lence Lence is listed in fair and stable condition, sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said. Wilson was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon and is recovering at home.
Paul McCoy said that when he talked to his son about Saturday's shootings, Malachi McCoy's "concern was for the other two deputies. He didn't want to see them injured any further."
Malachi McCoy, who was named after an Old Testament prophet who told God's people to repent of their ways, said he has received more than 50 phone calls of "unbelievable support" from friends and family.

He said his faith - and perhaps the Bible verse he wrote on his vest - has helped him through the ordeal.

"I just thought it would be kind of neat to write that on the steel plate," he said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib .com. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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