Deputy Sheriff Richard Roach

Richard Roach

Deputy Sheriff Dick Roach was shot and killed while sitting on his front porch in a Tampa suburb.

It is believed that he was murdered in retaliation by family members of a man he had killed two months earlier as the man resisted arrest, although no one was ever arrested or charged.

Deputy Roach was likely born into slavery in South Carolina and became one of the first black law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in Florida. He was survived by his wife, mother, and three siblings.