Hillsborough Deputies honored for life-saving actions
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They stood quietly before their peers, clutching certificates and medals as a room of people stood and applauded.
Three months ago, on a Saturday morning in June, two of the deputies received bullets to their bodies at the hand of a man who had already killed three people. A third deputy, named Malachi McCoy, shot their aggressor dead, ending a bloody rampage.
Today all three, and six others who assisted at the scene, were honored by Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee during a brief awards ceremony before a couple hundred people.
McCoy received the Medal of Honor, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a law enforcement officer. Deputies Ray Wilson and Arturo Lence were each given the Silver Cross Award, given to those who are injured in the line of duty.
“We did what we had to do,” said Lence, who is still receiving treatment for the bullet wounds he received to his stomach, bladder, back and leg. “It was a small price to pay for the end result.”
The deputies’ actions ended a shooting spree that began June 7 when Jorge Bello Garcia, 54, killed his estranged wife and two of her friends at her home in Carrollwood. When deputies responding to a dispatchers’ alert stopped his red pickup at Henderson Road near Linebaugh Avenue, Garcia began firing at deputies, hitting Wilson once and Lence twice.
Garcia ran toward Wilson and struggled to take his gun, but McCoy fatally shot Garcia during the attack, ending the gun battle.
After the awards ceremony, the three men talked about their experience. They said they think about it every day. Wilson returned to work about five weeks after the shooting. Lence, the most seriously injured, needs more healing before he can return to the street.
Though McCoy has received some of the highest praise for his quick actions, he looked to the men beside him Tuesday with respect and tears.
“The guys are warriors,” he said. “They don’t stop. They’re not going to let even a bullet stop them if they can help it, and I’m proud to work with them.”
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