In 1949, a Tampa police officer was killed. His story connects two friends.

TAMPA — As a young newsboy in Ybor City in 1949, Jesse Roger looked forward to regular chats with Tampa police officer Morris Lopez. Girls, school, sports – they discussed it all.

During one such conversation, on July 9, 1949, Lopez was shot and the case was never solved. But Jesse Roger never forgot.

About 40 years later, his son introduced Jesse Roger to his best friend, a colleague at Hillsborough Fire Rescue. The friend’s name was Morris Lopez III.

“I told him I knew Officer Morris Lopez when I was a kid,” said Jesse Rogers, 87, a retired Catholic administrator and football coach in Tampa. “He told me that was his grandfather. And I thought, ‘That can’t be it.’ That can’t be it.

Lopez III also couldn’t believe he was meeting one of the newsboys from the story he heard about his grandfather.

July 9 marks 75 years since Lopez’s death. The Tampa City Council is considering placing a historical monument on the corner where he was shot and still saved another newsboy.

“Having given his all as a police officer, Officer Lopez could not abandon not only his police training, but also his moral principle of being a defender of the community,” said Councilman Luis Viera. “Ybor City should know that a heroic police officer performed an incredible, selfless act there.”

Kevin Roger and Lopez III, both 58, said their friendship is a happy twist in the tragic story that holds their families together.

“God was able to bring us together,” said Kevin Roger, who retired as a Hillsborough Fire Rescue captain in 2018, “so that if we ever needed support, I would be there for him and he would be there for me.

What happened in 1949

According to the police report, Jesse Roger and three other newsboys were talking to Lopez about school segregation at the corner of 16th Street and Seventh Avenue when the officer was shot once in the back. The bullet passed through the chest.

The Tampa Police Department’s website says Lopez pushed one of the newsboys “out of harm’s way as he fell to the ground.”

Lopez then “very quickly pulled out his gun,” Jesse Roger said. “He screamed, ‘Call the police,’ but he didn’t shoot because I think he knew there were all these innocent men across the street and he didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Jesse Roger turned to run away but ran into a light pole. Confused and scared, he went towards the nearby railway tracks. “I thought, ‘What am I doing here?'” he said. “So I ran to the Victory Bakery and screamed that Officer Lopez had been shot… and then all of a sudden there were multiple police cars on the scene.”

Lopez died in the hospital. He was 25 years old, married and had two small children.

“He had aspirations,” said Lopez III, division shift commander for Hillsborough Fire Rescue. “He wanted to continue his schooling and his ultimate goal was to become a judge.”

The initial suspects were Amado Rocamora, whom the newspapers described as an “alleged drug addict,” and Jo Jo Cacciatore, “a long-time activist in the Tampa underworld.” It was believed that they killed Morris during the car ride and that the killer was Rocamora.

Mafia author Scott Deitch said Cacciatore was known as a mob member in Tampa, “the brother-in-law of Santo Trafficante Sr. and father-in-law Santo Trafficante Jr.” However, the killing was not believed to be Mafia-related. “Allegedly part of a personal feud.”

Newspapers reported that after being arrested on drug charges, Rocamora told Morris, “I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do.”

Neither Rocamora nor Cacciatore were charged.

“There was another theory that Lopez had arrested some younger man,” Deitche said.

According to the police report, the younger boy was Mario Guitierrez, who “held a grudge against Lopez and vowed revenge” for what he believed was unfair treatment. Police believe Guitierrez may have fired the shot from the 16th Street alley, but could not find him for questioning and lacked evidence.

“They’re all dead now, so the unresolved part probably can’t be fixed,” Lopez III said. “For me, this story is more about the destiny I had to fulfill to get into public safety and continue the tradition of someone who wanted to help people.”

Friendship

Lopez’s widow never remarried. To support her children, she worked part-time, but the city also helped.

“The city of Tampa has been great,” Lopez III said. “I think her pension in 1949 was $49, and when she died in 2000 it was about $3,000… and the city hired my dad, obviously because of my grandfather, for the streets department.”

Lopez III’s father was only 3 years old when Lopez died and had no memories of him. It was his grandmother who told him about her husband

“My grandmother always said my grandfather had an infectious, positive attitude that attracted people,” Lopez III said. “He had many friends and asked to be assigned to Ybor City, the neighborhood where he grew up…His passion was helping people. He was very intimidating, but he was also the sweetest man.

These stories inspired him to become a lifeguard. And when Lopez III lacked money for emergency medical services and firefighting school, his father helped him.

“He told me to go… carry on this name and continue the legacy of public safety,” Lopez III said.

Kevin Roger grew up knowing that his father witnessed the murder of a Tampa police officer, but he never heard the details. “Every now and then someone would ask him about it,” he said. “But he never sat down with us when we were kids and told us the whole story.”

Lopez III joined Hillsborough County Fire Rescue in early 1987. Kevin Roger joined him a few months later.

“I went to a small gathering of friends and told them I was starting with such-and-such a date,” Kevin Roger said. “And one of the guys who was a Tampa firefighter said when I start going around the department, look for his friend Morris Lopez.”

On his first day on the job, Kevin Roger’s shift relieved the crew of Lopez III.

“That’s how we met,” Kevin Roger said. “We immediately liked each other and started hanging out on our days off. We have been inseparable since then.”

They supported each other when things were hard and celebrated the good times together.

Kevin Roger introduced Morris III to a woman he knew he would like. Morris III married her and Kevin Roger was his best man. It was around this time that Jesse Roger met Morris III and the connection was discovered. Both men said it brought them closer.

“I felt like we should be friends,” Kevin Roger said.

Although Lopez III never met his grandfather, he wonders how the 75th anniversary will hit him.

“I will be thinking a lot about my grandmother, father and aunt,” all of whom died, he said. “It breaks my heart to think how they had to endure this tragedy.”

If Lopez III needed support that day, Kevin Roger said, he would be there. “We just have to share this together. I believe there is no such thing as coincidence. Our families are connected forever, and we are turning that into a positive.”