Wounded Lakeland police officer led by example

Around the Plant City soccer fields, Arnulfo Crispin is a hero to many.

"He's definitely a role model for some of our other Latin American players to look up to," said Stephen Rossiter, president of the Plant City Futbol Club. "He's always made a good choice to stay out of trouble. He's a good icon for our community."

From the middle school and the high school in Mulberry in Polk County to the soccer fields of eastern Hillsborough County, many people were pausing Monday to say a prayer for the 25-year-old police officer shot and critically wounded late Sunday.

"It was very shocking," Rossiter said of the news he first heard about 3 a.m. Monday. "He's in a lot of people's prayers right now."

Jorge Martinez, vice president of the soccer club, said he could not fathom what he heard early Monday.

"I couldn't believe it. It can't be," he recalled thinking at the time his son told him the news. "He's too young. He's just getting started."

While Crispin has been a police officer for only 18 months, he's been a soccer player for much, much longer.

In the Mulberry High School yearbook, he's the one in the front row of the soccer team photo in the black sleeveless shirt, striking his best muscular pose as a senior in 2006.

Before he began his law enforcement career, Crispin was a football and soccer player for the Fighting Panthers.

Even though the school was out for Christmas break on Monday, the shooting shook those who know Crispin and his family.

"I couldn't believe it," said A.J. Schuh, a 2009 graduate of Mulberry who played for one year alongside Crispin, who wore No. 7 in both sports.

"On the soccer field, he was a leader," Schuh said. "He took control and told us what we needed to do.

"He was really good. He was probably our best player," he added. "He could play anywhere."

He was a success both on and off the field, those who know him said.

"Arnulfo was a student athlete, excelling in both football and soccer," said Patricia Barnes, Mulberry's principal. "I remember him as being full of life, someone who enjoyed his friends and did well in school."

Barnes was principal at Mulberry Middle when Crispin was a student there. She remembers him as a quiet student who kept to himself but had a close circle of four to five friends. He was always laughing.

"The Mulberry community is deeply sad … to learn of his having been shot," she added, calling the tragedy a senseless act. "Our prayers are with him and his family."

At Webber International University in Babson Park, where he went briefly after high school, he was known simply as "Arnie."

Wearing No. 25 for the Warriors, he played midfield and forward for the school's soccer team for one year. He was described as an attacking type of player.

"He had the potential to be a pretty good player," said Steve Warner, vice president of advancement for the university who also had Crispin in an introduction to business class he taught. "He was a very technical player, meaning he had good ball skills and very good speed."

In the classroom, he was a standout as well.

"He had confidence in himself in his soccer ability and in the classroom," said Warner, who also is the school's director of soccer operations. "He brought things to the classroom that other people wouldn't stand up and say. He wasn't afraid to say those things."

Warner remembers Crispin as a happy student who was always attentive in class and always participated. Years later, he still recalls his outgoing personality.

On Monday, the school official, like so many others, was struggling to come to grips with the news.

"You're always concerned about any police officer who gets shot," Warner said. "When you find out it was one of your former students, it hits home a little bit more."

Martinez, of the Plant City soccer league, said he had talked to one of Crispin's uncles, who told him the family was not doing well.

"They are devastated," he said. "I could just hear it in his voice that he is devastated."