Off-Duty Tampa Officer Killed In Motorcycle Accident

GOWERS CORNER - An off-duty Tampa police officer with 20 years on the force was killed Thursday when a county-owned pickup turned into the path of his motorcycle on U.S. 41 in Pasco County, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Master Patrol Officer Victor Guerrero, 47, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where he was airlifted to after the 12:50 p.m. crash.

His family gathered there to mourn his loss, said Trooper Larry Coggins, a highway patrol spokesman. Guerrero is survived by a wife, three children and three stepchildren.

"He had an outstanding reputation," Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said during a news conference Thursday at St. Joseph's Hospital. "He was known as a steady person, never changing. He did his job with dignity and pride."

The officer's death shocked his family and has shaken his fellow officers, Iorio said.

Relatives at the hospital were not available for comment.

"This is a sad day for the Tampa Police Department," Chief Steve Hogue said.

Guerrero lived in Brooksville and was a Tampa police officer for 20 years, police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.

Eyewitness Rosario Fierro said he was working on his family's property nearby when he heard tires squeal and turned to see the motorcycle rider flying through the air.

The motorcyclist had been southbound, in a 55 mph zone, about a mile north of State Road 52.

"He flew off the motorcycle and hit a second truck that was northbound" behind the one that turned into his path, Fierro said. "He flew about 50 feet past that."

"We tried to help him but he just wasn't moving," Fierro said. He said a work crew of female jail trusties was picking up trash on the side of the highway, and the detention deputy called 911.

The driver of the first truck - a Ford Ranger with an extended cab owned by the Pasco County Engineering Services Department - told bystanders he did not see the motorcycle as he tried to turn left from the northbound lane of U.S. 41, Fierro said.

Coggins identified the county employee as Daniel Whipple, 53, of Hudson. No charges had been filed Thursday night.

Whipple's truck was impounded, and he was escorted back to the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey, where he was to undergo a drug test, said county public information officer Eric Keaton.

A homicide investigator's initial findings matched Fierro's account, Coggins said. However, the trooper said it was not confirmed that Guerrero, who was not wearing a helmet, struck the second truck before landing on the east side of the roadway.

The driver of that truck, Bruce Brick, 55, of Brandon, said he thought the officer glanced off the truck, Coggins said. He said Guerrero's 2008 Harley-Davidson came to rest under the front of Brick's 2006 Ford van.

State records show that Whipple was cited for speeding twice and received one ticket for failing to use due care and one for failing to obey a traffic sign or device at a traffic intersection in an incident that involved a crash. In each case adjudication was withheld, meaning he was not convicted and did not receive points on his driver's license. He completed a remedial driving class in June 2005, records state.

Johnnie Hunt, who lives next door to Guerrero's mother in Tampa, said he became close friends with the officer over the years.

Guerrero "always had bikes and fast cars. He's always been cool," Hunt said. "He's the nicest guy I ever met."