Slain officer is respected, loved and missed

Tampa police Cpl. Mike Roberts loved three things: his family, his career and this city.

Wednesday night, he gave his life for the city.

A decorated 11-year veteran and former K-9 officer, Roberts, 38, had just been promoted and had a goal of making detective.

"It was his most favorite thing in the whole world," said his cousin Nora Morgan.

She paused, choking back tears.

"I just saw him on Monday," said Morgan, back at her Denver home after visiting Roberts and other relatives in Florida. "He really loved the city. He took us on a tour and showed us all around. He was a Buccaneers fan from the time he was a little boy."

In Sulphur Springs, the neighborhood Roberts patrolled and where he was shot in the line of duty, the somber news about the popular officer spread quickly.

"He was always so nice and so pleasant," said Tonya Thomas, community coordinator for the Sulphur Springs Neighborhood Watch Association. "We are just so shaken up here. Our prayers and condolences go out to his family."

The neighborhood is dogged by its reputation as being crime-ridden.

"We feel like he was part of our family," Thomas said. "We all appreciated him being here and making a difference."

Lisa Timmer oversees 72 neighborhood watch programs as a liaison for Tampa police District 2, which includes Sulphur Springs.

"I'm receiving e-mails from the community and calls," she said Thursday. "There's a huge outpouring from the public already.

"Some were calling me last night, crying," Timmer said. "It's going to be a dark day."

Tampa police Officer Frank Kelley met Roberts 12 years ago when both men served in the military. He remembers his friend's "sense of humor, his wide smile, his laugh and his ability to make the darkest day a little brighter."

Roberts' recent promotion meant a transfer from the department's K-9 Unit - and that was difficult for him.

"He loved that job," said Kelley, godfather to Roberts' 3-year-old son, Adam. "He lived and breathed it. I asked him how he was going to leave the dogs. He said it was going to be hard."

Roberts received glowing evaluations and was commended on his diligence. Supervisors said he was the type of officer to see something and act, rather than wait until a call from dispatch.

It was what he did about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he saw a man pushing a full shopping cart at Nebraska Avenue and Arctic Street, an area beset by a recent rash of burglaries.

Roberts stopped to investigate.

He was shot within minutes.

'Their hearts are broken'

Roberts leaves behind his son and his wife, Cynthia, as well as a stunned department.

"This is just a horrible, tragic crime that has been committed against this young, dedicated officer," said police Maj. George McNamara.

Roberts, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Army, won a lifesaving award with the department in 2005 for his handling of a man threatening suicide.

Police Chief Stephen Hogue said Roberts arrived at the Howard Frankland Bridge and found the man with a rope around his neck and one leg over the railing. He talked the man out of jumping and pulled him back to safety.

"He was able to save that man's life," Hogue said.

In March, Roberts was called to help find a missing toddler. As officers waited for tracking dogs to arrive at the apartment complex, Roberts looked inside the vehicles in the parking lot. He found the child inside a hot vehicle; she had climbed inside but couldn't get out.

In addition to dozens of letters of appreciation from residents, Roberts' personnel file includes a long letter commending him for the compassion he showed the family of a homicide victim.

He also received a "Catch of the Month" award for intervening between two groups at an apartment complex, thwarting a possible shootout.

"He was a very good, hard-working police corporal," Hogue said. "We promoted him and we only promote a very few and only the best, and he was one of those."

Mayor Pam Iorio called Roberts' death "a terrible tragedy," offering condolences to his family and the department. She has declared that all city of Tampa flags should be lowered to half-staff in memory of Roberts.

"He was loved by his fellow police officers," she said outside Tampa General Hospital an hour after Roberts was pronounced dead. "Their hearts are broken. He loved his wife and son. That was all he talked about."

In a statement Thursday, Iorio said: "Gunned down while working to make Tampa a safer place to live, Cpl. Roberts served as an example of the outstanding commitment and dedication of our police force. May his son grow up knowing that his father was our hero."