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Slain Officer's Memorial Dedicated At Academy

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

A monument honoring Detective Rick Childers, Detective Randy Bell and Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Crooks was unveiled Friday afternoon during the graduation program at Hillsborough Community College's law enforcement academy. The officers were killed in the line of duty by Hank Earl Carr in 1998.

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By GEORGE WILKENS

gwilkens@tampatrib.com

Published: November 8, 2008

TAMPA - A memorial to a Tampa police detective shot in the line of duty a decade ago was dedicated Friday, ending years of wrangling to find a home for the black obelisk.

The granite monument bearing the image of Ricky Childers was unveiled outside the police academy building at Hillsborough Community College's Ybor City campus.

Childers, 46, and his partner, Detective Randy Bell, 44, were fatally shot May 19, 1998, while transporting prisoner Hank Earl Carr, who had killed his girlfriend's 4-year-old son. Fleeing north after shooting the two detectives, Carr killed Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Crooks, 23, before committing suicide at a Hernando County gas station/convenience store.

Childers and Bell already are honored on a monument outside Tampa police headquarters to Tampa officers killed in the line of duty.

The $10,000 obelisk was funded by donations from residents of Plant City, where Childers was born and attended school. The monument was completed in 1999, but Plant City commissioners denied a request by Childers' mother, Jean Turner of Plant City, to allow it at McCall Park.

Commissioners contended it was inappropriate for a park, and instead planted a tree there in Childers' memory. Turner delayed putting the monument elsewhere, saying it should be displayed in Plant City, as Plant City residents paid for it.

This past summer, Turner sought approval to place the monument on the Plant City campus of HCC, but the effort stalled, she said Friday.

"Thank God we got it here," she said after the dedication ceremony held in conjunction with the graduation of 23 HCC law enforcement recruits.

"This is better, because this is where they graduate," she said of future officers.

Childers' son, Corky Harris of Tampa, told the crowd he recalls, at age 7, attending his father's graduation from the academy.

"My father was always my hero and I'll always love him," he said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report. Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433.

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