When many of us awoke last week Tuesday morning we were shocked by the news that two Tampa police officers had been gunned down overnight during a routine traffic stop, that turned out to be anything but routine. Officers Jeffrey Kocab and David Curtis, each died from a single gunshot to the head. A gun, we are told, that was fired by 24 year-old Dontae Morris. For four days a joint effort of various law enforcement agencies participated in a search for Morris that expanded as far as Jacksonville, Florida. During this time period we learned that Morris, who has an arrest record, may have done this heinous act to avoid going back to jail on an outstanding warrant; or even worse, he may be connected to three additional unsolved murders.
Dontae Morris, when it’s all said and done, will most likely face the death penalty for his actions early Tuesday morning; but those actions not only took the lives of those two officers, and ruined his own life, but along the way he ensnarled others in his vicious web.
When news of the story broke, we learned that Officer Curtis stopped a Toyota Camry driven by Cortnee Brantley, a 22 year-old female. According to reports, after Morris exited the vehicle at the request of the officers and fired the fatal shots, Brantley sped off. When she was later picked up by police she was uncooperative. It was later learned after her arrest on Federal charges that shortly after the shooting she spoke with Morris. We can all sit back and play Monday morning quarterback and say what we would have done in that same situation. But lets be honest, how many of us would ever think that we would be riding down the street one minute and the next witness our companion murder two people (cops at that) in cold blood. A million things could have been running through Cortnee’s mind before, during, and after those fatal moments. Now a week later, and facing four years in Federal prison, I am sure, like Heather Headley croons in her 2002 hit, I Wish I Wasn’t, she wishes she could go back to the day before she met Dontae Morris, and skip her regrets.
Over the past week several people found themselves facing the ire of law enforcement, including Morris brother, Dwayne Calloway and his girlfriend Alaina Riggins. Both were arrested at a local motel and held on various charges including cocaine and marijuana possession. Grant it, these are no angels and they do not deserve any sympathy on our parts, but lets face it, had Morris not done the unthinkable, no one really would have cared about Calloway’s outstanding warrants on domestic violence or violations of parole. Nor would Riggins mother, a 10-year employee of the Tampa Police Department, be on an unpaid suspension facing termination. Talk about guilt by association.
Carolyn Riggins, according to Police Chief Jane Castor, knew her daughter Alaina was in a relationship with Dwayne Calloway and failed to disclose this information. Excuse me Chief Castor, but is that information you would want the world to know? Dwayne Calloway was not wanted for the murders, nor was Riggins’ daughter involved. I would even go out on a limb and say there have been many crimes committed in Tampa, and city employees, even some police officers, are connected to those offenders. Some call it six degrees of separation…for every person you know, you are connected to them by at least six other people. I don’t know Carolyn Riggins personally, but I am quite sure that her daughter, had she been in contact with Morris, was not running home to tell her mom all about it.
As a woman I know all too well about being in love with the wrong guy. If I thought long and hard about it, I probably could recall a time or two that my own mother warned me that nothing good was going to come of that relationship. I also can tell you that I probably have done some things in the name of love that will go to the grave with me, and my mother will never be the wiser. In the end, we all make foolish mistakes, we all have regrets, and we all have handled things in a way that with time we realize would have had a better outcome, if we had done them differently. The bottom line is, Dontae Morris pulled the trigger that killed those two police officers, and he alone should be held accountable. When Cortnee Brantley left her apartment in the early hours of June 29th, she had no clue her life was about to change so drastically.
Caroyn Riggins and Mischell Brantley, like so many mothers probably did their best in raising their daughters, but when law enforcement knocked on their doors they felt they had been trapped in a very bad dream. As the mother of three daughters I do my best to teach them right from wrong, to always consider the consequences of their actions, and to make serious observations of the company that they keep. Like others, I pray my lessons sink in, and they always do the right thing, but as history has shown time and time again, it doesn’t take much to get caught in the web of someone else’s wickedness.
Much Love,
Tracy
Tracy L. Darity is the award winning author of the novel “He Loves Me He Loves Me Not!” and the controversial “Love…Like Snow In Florida On A Hot Summer Day.”
To connect with Tracy visit:
www.TracyLDarity.com
www.TracyLDarity.ning.com
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