Fallen law enforcement officers honored, remembered

Emotions ran high at a luncheon Wednesday honoring families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, as the widow of a Tampa police corporal recounted the tragic night.

"I received that dreadful knock on the door," Cindy Roberts told the hushed crowd at the annual event hosted by the Gold Shield Foundation, which offers financial support to families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed on the job. "I didn't answer it."

She said she looked out the window and saw a police cruiser parked on the street and thought it might have been a friend of her husband, Cpl. Mike Roberts, unaware that he was working that night.

Eventually, she opened the door to the news her husband had been gravely wounded in a shooting and was clinging to life.

"That ride to the hospital took forever," she said.

Her husband died before she got there.

After the shock and grief came the concerns about her family's welfare. But those worries were eased when the foundation helped her through the difficult days and offered to pay for college for her and her son.

Roberts said she is enrolled in a master's program and hopes to become a school guidance counselor.

The crowd of more than 600 gave a standing ovation as she left the stage.

The foundation was incorporated in 1981 after two firefighters and a police officer were killed in Hillsborough County. The organization was started by New York Yankees owner and longtime Tampa resident George Steinbrenner, who died in July.

The foundation assists families in seven West Central Florida counties.

The past year or so has been particularly difficult for the local law enforcement community.

In September, Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Mark Longway was killed when his patrol car collided with a tractor-trailer in downtown Tampa. Investigators concluded Longway ran a red light.

In June, Tampa police officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis were fatally shot during a traffic stop in East Tampa.

The double homicide came less than a year after Roberts was shot to death in Sulphur Springs.

During his keynote speech, former Major League Baseball player and manager Lou Piniella broke down in tears while remembering his friend Steinbrenner, whose family was in attendance.

The Tampa native recalled how Steinbrenner fired him at the end of the 1988 season but kept him in the organization until he could get a job managing elsewhere.

Two years later, Piniella's Cincinnati Reds won the World Series. The first word of congratulations came from Steinbrenner.

Piniella's voice cracked as he recalled hearing about Steinbrenner's death.

"I felt that Tampa had lost a great friend," he said, "someone who always wanted to make things better."

kmorelli@tampatrib.com

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