Fallen Tampa police officer 'lived for his kids'

David Lamar Curtis was a level-headed police officer who never took chances and loved his wife and his four boys.

"He always wanted to be on the street," said former colleague Hillsborough County sheriff's Lt. Luis Llauger.

Curtis, 31, was pronounced dead at 8:30 a.m. today. He had been on life support at Tampa General Hospital after being shot during a traffic stop about six hours earlier. Tampa police Officer Jeffrey Kocab, 31, also was fatally shot.

Curtis' organs will be donated at his family's request.

"He had four boys and they were everything to him," Police Chief Jane Castor said. "It's just a tragedy. There's no other way to describe it."

Curtis left the sheriff's office for Tampa police in 2006.

Llauger, who works at Falkenburg Road Jail, had known him since 2003. He said Curtis loved his job and was "always a positive guy ... always smiling."

"We were on the TAC (tactical action control) team together," he said. "That's like the SWAT team for the jail. In 2005, we went to Mississippi to help recovery after Hurricane Katrina.

"He was level-headed," Llauger said. "He was not the one who's going to rush into things. You know that when he did something it was calculated and planned out and he thought about it."

Llauger said Curtis loved working the midnight shift - "He was working the midnight shift when he was here."

The arrangement gave Curtis more time to be with his wife, Kelly, and their sons, Austin, 9, Sean, 6, Tyler, 5, and Hunter, 8 months.

"His family," Llauger said. "He lived for his kids."

Police Officer Jerome Graham worked out with Curtis at a gym Monday afternoon.

As they left about 6:15 p.m. to go to work, Graham said, Curtis flashed a peace sign and told him, "I'll see you out there."

A native of Mobile, Ala., Curtis had spent the past year assigned to patrol the area around North Boulevard Homes. He made 241 arrests and issued 174 traffic citations, according to his September 2009 evaluation.

The review cites an incident in which a child stopped breathing and Curtis began CPR until paramedics arrived and comforted the child's family.

Less than a year after he was hired, Curtis was named Officer of the Month in August 2007 in recognition of his handling of a complicated child neglect case.

"Officer Curtis showed compassion for the child involved and went to great lengths to find a safe place for her to stay," the award said.

Curtis also received glowing evaluations during his tenure with the sheriff's office.

After attending the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Curtis held a variety of jobs, including stints in a department store, a home improvement center, a gym and briefly as a bouncer at The Improv comedy club in Ybor City.

Of his bouncer job, Curtis wrote in his sheriff's office application in 2002: "I was never in any real fights. I learned to calm everyone down first, not to beat everyone up."

At the jail, Curtis received glowing evaluations.

"He always is upbeat and displays a positive attitude no matter the job assignment," his supervisors wrote in 2006.

Throughout, Curtis maintained his goal of becoming a deputy or police officer on the street.

"I want to be a part of the criminal justice system," he wrote in his application, "so that I can do my part to keep people safe."

In the inch-thick sheriff's personnel file is a statement from Curtis' twin brother.

"His chief strengths are probably his moral beliefs, his sense of fairness to everyone and a strong work ethic," Autumn Leigh Curtis, a teacher in Arkansas, wrote of his brother.