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Signal 14

Everybody was 'Buddy' to him

Students and staff at Turkey Creek Middle School still can't believe Deputy Carrega, their resource officer, role model and pal, is gone.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published January 6, 2006

TURKEY CREEK - Every morning, Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Chris Carrega stood by the bus ramp to greet students at Turkey Creek Middle School.

Tuesday, when school reopened, his spot was empty.

Carrega, a school resource officer, was killed Christmas Eve when his car crashed into a pole on Pless Road in Thonotosassa. The crash is still under investigation.

On Tuesday, students and administrators alike dealt with the shock of the 48-year-old's death.

"Seeing his office empty, opening it up," said assistant principal Marcos Murillo, "it doesn't sink in until you're here, (and) he's not here anymore."

Crisis counselors from the Hillsborough County School District met with students Tuesday morning as they returned to school. Outside, the flag flew at half-mast. The school's marquee read, "We will miss you Deputy Carrega."

Murillo said that only a few students hadn't heard the news during the winter break, either from the newspaper or from their parents.

In part because of this, the day had gone more smoothly than he'd feared, he said.

Still, Carrega will be irreplaceable.

"The kids really, really loved him," Murillo said.

"I've been in other schools, and he was really good. He really enjoyed working with the kids."

"He was just so capable of winning people over," said Patrick Canavan, a school district psychologist.

Canavan was part of Tuesday's crisis team, but he also worked at Turkey Creek when Carrega started there five years ago.

"He was high energy, but at the same time he was low key," said Canavan. "Everybody was "Buddy' to him."

If a student wasn't coming to school, said school social worker Cooper Turner III, Carrega - a former truant officer - took it upon himself to visit the child's family.

"He would try to build a relationship with them," Turner said. "He changed a lot of kids' attitudes about coming to school, just by coming down to their level."

Murillo said that many of the children Carrega knew best came to his wake to pay their respects to his parents, brothers and ex-wife, who was described by family as his true love.

Murillo and Turner remembered Carrega intervening when a student got upset in the principal's office, using the authority of his voice and his uniform to calm the student down, then talking quietly with them.

They remembered Carrega on lunch duty, stepping in to play four-square with students.

"He was so involved every day," said Murillo. "That's what made him so good with the kids."

On Tuesday, Canavan said, one student stared angrily at one of the other school-resource deputies who was working with the crisis team.

"You can't take his place," the boy told the deputy.

"He was visibly upset," Canavan said. "He didn't want (Carrega) replaced."

That led to a decision, he said.

"We're not going to have another cop out there, in his spot," waiting by the bus ramp in the morning, Canavan said, "Just to acknowledge that he's not here."

Signal 14, the code for "information," is an occasional column about policing east Hillsborough. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 08:51:07]