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Tampa Officer In Fatal Weekend Shooting Has Good Record

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 8, 2008

TAMPA - The Tampa Police Department officer who fatally shot Roobik "Tony" Vartanian on Saturday morning has received consistently positive marks on his job evaluations.

He even received an award in 2007 for saving a man's life, Tampa police say.

Officer Rick Harrell was working extra duty in the early hours of May 3, 2007, when Kevin Thompson became violent in Tampa General Hospital's emergency room and threatened to kill everyone, including himself, according to a letter last year from Maj. Robert Guidara.

Harrell approached Thompson, who ran away, screaming that he was going to jump into the bay and kill himself, police said.

Harrell chased the man, telling him to stop. Thompson refused.

"Just before he reached the river's edge, Officer Harrell managed to take control of Mr. Thompson and prevent him from jumping," Guidara's letter states. "Without Officer Harrell's quick action in this instance, Mr. Thompson may have caused harm to hospital personnel and may have also succeeded in committing suicide. Officer Harrell most certainly saved Mr. Thompson from significant injury, up to and including death."

He has spent about six years with Tampa police.

Despite Harrell's positive reviews, a witness to Saturday's shooting questioned Harrell's actions.

Police say Vartanian, 35, a security manager at Club Prana on Seventh Avenue, got into a dispute while ejecting two men from the club. Carrying a gun, he followed them to a parking lot behind a warehouse between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Police say two plainclothes police officers arrived, identified themselves and told Vartanian to drop the gun. Instead, police say, he turned toward the officers.

Harrell fired a shot, hitting Vartanian in the stomach. Vartanian died at Tampa General Hospital.

Recia Henry, 23, of Ybor City, was working at the parking lot and disputed the officers' account.

"That officer jumped out of the vehicle and straight up shot that man," she said. "The officer never said anything to him first."

Steve Dugger, a towing operator and friend of Vartanian's, said Sunday that his employees saw the shooting and told him the officers did not identify themselves and did not wait for Vartanian to turn fully toward them before firing.

Dugger said that if Vartanian knew the men were officers, he wouldn't have pointed a gun at them.

Police said Vartanian and other employees chased the two men outside after an argument in the club and confronted them behind the warehouse. He asked one of the employees to go back inside to get a gun. Moments later, the two officers showed up in the van.

Police say they identified themselves to Vartanian and ordered him to drop the gun, but he refused and turned toward them.

"The story that they're coming up with is totally false," Recia Henry said of police.

Other eyewitnesses said the officers did identify themselves, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said today.

She said police would not provide the witnesses' names or a police report to The Tampa Tribune because the investigation is ongoing.

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

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