A Tampa Police officer was killed in 1949. His story binds two friends.

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

During one of those chats, on July 9, 1949, Lopez was shot and killed, a case that was never solved. But Jesse Roger never forgot.

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

“I told him that back when I was a kid, I knew an officer Morris Lopez,” said Jesse Roger, 87 and a retired Tampa Catholic administrator and football coach. “He told me that is his grandfather. And I thought, ‘It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.’”

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

July 9 marks 75 years since Lopez was killed. Tampa City Council is considering a historic marker on the corner where he was shot and still saved another newsboy.

“While giving his all as a police officer, Officer Lopez could not let go of not only his police training, but his moral principle of being a community protector,” Councilman Luis Viera said. “Ybor City should know that a hero cop did an amazing, selfless act there.”

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

“God had a way of putting us together,” said Kevin Roger, who retired in 2018 as a captain from Hillsborough Fire Rescue, “so that if at any time we needed some support, I was going to be around for him, and he would be around for me.”

What happened in 1949

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

The Tampa Police Department’s website says that Lopez pushed one of the newsboys “out of danger as he was falling to the ground.”

Lopez then “drew his pistol really quick,” Jesse Roger said. “He yelled, ‘Call the police,’ but didn’t fire because I think he knew that there were all these innocent men across the street, and he didn’t want to hurt someone.”

Jesse Roger turned to escape but ran into a light pole. Confused and scared, he made his way to nearby railroad tracks. “I thought, ‘What am I doing here,’” he said. “So, I ran into the Victory Bakery and yelled that Officer Lopez had been shot ... and then all of a sudden, a great number of police cars arrived on the scene.”

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Lopez died at the hospital. He was 25 and married with two young children.

“He had aspirations,” said Lopez III, a division chief shift commander with Hillsborough Fire Rescue. “He wanted to continue school and his ultimate goal was to be a judge.”

The initial suspects were Amado Rocamora, who newspapers described as a “reputed drug addict,” and Jo Jo Cacciatore, “a long-time figure in Tampa’s underworld.” It was believed they’d killed Morris in a drive-by, with Rocamora as the gunman.

Mob author Scott Deitch said that Cacciatore was known as a member of the Tampa mafia, “the brother-in-law of Santo Trafficante Sr. and the father-in-law of Santo Trafficante Jr.” But the killing was not believed to be mob-related. “It was allegedly part of a personal beef.”

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

Neither Rocamora nor Cacciatore were charged.

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

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

“They’re all dead now, so the unsolved part is probably not something that can be fixed,” Lopez III said. “This story, for me, is more about the destiny I had to get into public safety and to carry on the tradition of somebody that wanted to help people.”

The friendship

Lopez’ widow never remarried. She worked odd jobs to support the kids, but the city helped too.

“The city of Tampa was so great,” Lopez III said. “I think her pension back in 1949 was $49, and when she passed away in 2000, it was like $3,000 ... and the city hired my dad, obviously because of my grandfather, for the streets department.”

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

“My grandmother always said that my grandfather had an infectious, positive attitude that people were drawn to,” Lopez III said. “He had a lot of friends and requested to be assigned to Ybor City a neighborhood he grew up around ... His passion was to help people. He was very intimidating, but was also the sweetest man.”

Those stories inspired him to become a first responder. And when Lopez III was short money for EMT and fire school, his father helped out.

“He told me to go ... carry the name, continue the legacy in public safety,” Lopez III said.

Kevin Roger grew up knowing his father had witnessed the killing of a Tampa police officer, but he never heard the details. “Periodically someone would ask him about it,” he said. “But he never sat us down as kids and told us the story.”

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

“I went to a little gathering of friends and told them that I was starting on such and such a date,” Kevin Roger said. “And one of the guys who was a city of Tampa fireman said when I start making my way around the department, look for his friend Morris Lopez.”

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

“That’s how we met,” Kevin Roger said. “We took an instant liking to each other and started hanging out on off days. Since then, we’ve been inseparable.”

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

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

“It felt like we were supposed to be friends,” Kevin Roger said.

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

“I will think a lot about my grandmother, my father and my aunt,” each of whom has died, he said. “It’s heartbreaking to think about how they had to endure that tragedy.”

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