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Release Number: 09-269

For Immediate Release

Public Information Office

October 14, 2009

JD Callaway jcallawa@hcso.tampa.fl.us

(813) 247-8060

 

 

Who:

Victim: Deputy Miguel Galarza, 35 years old

 

Suspect: Miguel Angel Serrano

DOB 3/23/81

406 Kirby Street, Apartment 1, Tampa

 

Charges: Attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer; armed home invasion; possession of marijuana.
What:

Attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer/Armed home invasion
When:

October 13, 2009 11:00 p.m. Tuesday
Where:

406 Kirby St, Tampa
Why/How:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, someone from an apartment at 8329 Country Square Court called 911. The caller never said anything to the dispatcher, who could only hear a muffled, indistinguishable voice in the background. Deputies were dispatched to the apartment in regards to an open line 911 call. The telephone call lasted about seven minutes, after which time the caller disconnected the line.

 

Deputy Miguel Galarza arrived at the apartment within minutes. He encountered a man standing in the doorway. The man told the deputy everything was OK and tried to shut the door in the deputy's face. The deputy pushed open the door and entered the apartment. A violent fight ensued between the deputy and the suspect. During the struggle Deputy Galarza is shot in the back of the neck.

The suspect then runs from the apartment.

 

Deputy Galarza radios for help, saying he has been shot. Other deputies, along with the Florida Highway Patrol and Tampa Police Department, converge on the area. Perimeters are established to catch the suspect.

 

Deputy Galarza is transported by ambulance to St. Joseph's Hospital.

 

Around midnight, deputies stop a car in the area of Wilsky Boulevard and Dry Creek Drive. Inside is an adult male who was hiding in the back seat. That individual is detained and questioned. He is later identified as the person who shot the deputy. Deputies also seized the suspect's firearm from inside the vehicle. (At some point after shooting the deputy, the suspect solicited a ride in a car, paying the driver to take him from the area.)

 

Deputy Galarza is treated and released from the hospital around 6 a.m. this morning. Deputy Galarza is 35 years old and has been a deputy since January 2007.

 

The investigation continues.