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Separate hit-run incidents kill 2 cops
Injuries are fatal to an Orange deputy. In Polk, a policeman is struck by a van and a truck.
Jim Leusner, Willoughby Mariano and Elaine Aradillas
Sentinel Staff Writers

August 3, 2006, 12:33 AM EDT

Even though he received massive blood transfusions, an Orange County deputy critically injured near Universal Orlando when police said a hit-and-run driver purposefully struck him was removed from life support Wednesday night.

Deputy Michael A. Callin was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. as about 300 relatives, friends and co-workers crowded Orlando Regional Medical Center to be nearby, Sheriff Kevin Beary said. The married, 26-year-old motorcycle officer had fought for life for more than a day while doctors worked to repair catastrophic internal injuries that included brain damage and kidney failure.

"It's an absolutely senseless loss for the community," Beary said. "There's an attitude of lawlessness out there."

In nearby Polk County, colleagues were mourning the death of a Haines City police officer killed by a hit-and-run driver as he was riding to work on a motorcycle before dawn Wednesday.

Phoenix Montana Braithwaite, 24, was heading south on U.S. Highway 17-92 when he was struck head-on by a van and then run over by a flatbed truck near the Osceola County line, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Suspects in both cases abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot before being captured.

In a brief appearance in an Orange County Jail courtroom, the man charged with trying to kill Callin was ordered held without bail. Allan O. Barahona, 19, of Orlando told Judge Nancy Clark that he did not need a public defender.

"I'm going to hire my own attorney," he said softly.

Barahona was charged before Callin's death with attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and resisting an officer without violence. Investigators expect to amend the charges to include murder, after an autopsy is performed.

Homicide Sgt. Rich Ring said detectives are confident they arrested the suspect who drove a 1996 Honda Civic into Callin, a four-year Sheriff's Office deputy, during a speeding enforcement operation along an on-ramp from Kirkman Road to I-4 near Universal Orlando at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Callin stepped into the roadway to signal Barahona to stop, but Barahona swerved left and downshifted to accelerate past Callin, according to an arrest affidavit released late Wendnesday

Callin stepped into the Honda's path again, and Barahona failed to maneuver around him, the document states. Witnesses told Orlando police that Barahona had ample time to avoid hitting the motorcycle officer, and that he failed to brake or try to drive around the deputy.

One witness told them that "it appeared the defendant [Barahona] intentionally struck the victim [Callin]," according to the affidavit.

Authorities said three passengers were detained as they searched for Barahona, who was arrested by deputies shortly after midnight in the Pine Hills area west of Orlando.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement and court records show that Barahona has been arrested at least six times since September 2003, on charges that included fraud, burglary and twice driving with a suspended license. Barahona has been cited for 14 traffic offenses and was arrested by Orange County deputies May 30 for driving with a suspended license. His license was suspended indefinitely on July 27, records show.

Late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Callin underwent surgeries for a torn femoral artery, and part of his right leg was amputated. Doctors stabilized him and then noticed swelling on his brain that caused irreversible damage, Beary said.

After trauma surgeons consulted with a neurosurgeon, Callin's family decided to end life support, and he died minutes later.

The deputy's need for 179 units of blood, platelets and plasma during his first 12 hours of treatment spurred a public appeal for blood donations throughout the region, said Dawn Vaughan, communications manager for the nonprofit Florida's Blood Centers.

Callin is the 13th Orange deputy to die in the line of duty. His death also marks the 35th murder in Orlando this year. In Polk County on Wednesday, about a half-dozen law-enforcement agencies searched eight hours before catching Miguel Gonzalez, who was driving the van that hit Braithwaite. Police said after the crash that Gonzalez ran into woods on the side of the highway, leaving Braithwaite on the pavement and two injured passengers inside his van.

Trooper Kim Miller, spokeswoman for the Highway Patrol, expressed frustration at what she said is a growing problem: This was the seventh hit-and-run death in Central Florida since May and the third serious hit-and-run accident in the region since Saturday.

Hit-and-runs are "absolutely an epidemic. No one wants to stay around the scene anymore," Miller said. "They're leaving people to die on the side of the road."

Gonzalez, 43, was driving without a license and was interviewed by Border Patrol agents because officials concluded he was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He will be charged with a second-degree felony, leaving the scene of an accident without rendering aid involving injury or death, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Braithwaite was a rookie who started his career less than a year ago after serving 2 1/2 years in the Army as an assistant gunner. The father, whose wife and infant daughter live in Osceola County, started on the force in September and often thanked his chief for giving him his first civilian job.

Ironically, Beary had a connection to Braithwaite as well as Callin. He was Braithwaite's instructor in a terrorism class he is teaching at Florida Metropolitan University in Orlando.

"Both loved the job," Beary said. "Mike Callin told his dad the other day, 'Dad, I love my job, and I'd do it without pay.' And Phoenix Braithwaite was cut from the same mold."

Sarah Lundy and Scott Powers contributed to this report. Jim Leusner can be reached at jleusner@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5411. Willoughby Mariano can be reached at wmariano@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5171. Elaine Aradillas can be reached at earadillas@orlandosentinel.com or 407-931-5940.