As everyone starts the Monday Quarterbacking, another BSO official will be laid to rest. The Miami Herald has already done the “It’s about money” story and people are asking how can you put a scumbag who has nothing to lose alone with a 76 year old retired ex cop. Here are some of the stories. Michael Mazza’s lawyer said he was known as ”the gentle bandit,” but deputies call him a cold-blooded cop killer.

A career criminal, Mazza confessed Wednesday night to fatally shooting Broward sheriff’s Deputy Paul Rein with the officer’s own gun, Sheriff Al Lamberti said.

Captured after a frenzied manhunt that paralyzed much of Broward County and locked down all public and many private schools, Mazza was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Rein, a 76-year-old grandfather working alone as he transferred Mazza from jail to court.

Mazza was ordered held in Miami-Dade County rather than in a Broward jail, where he would have been guarded by Rein’s colleagues.

”It’s an emotionally charged case,” Lamberti said. “We just don’t want anybody making any accusations that he was mistreated.”

Left behind: another widow and a new round of grief for a law-enforcement community already shaken by a series of tragedies during a year in which criminals seem to have declared open season on South Florida police officers and deputies.

Also left behind were difficult questions for the sheriff’s office. Chief among them: Why was the deputy, at his advanced age, working solo?

LENGTHY RECORD

Mazza, who has a profane heart-shaped tattoo emblazoned on his chest, is 40 years old, stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 210 pounds. His criminal record dates back at least 17 years, and he already was serving a life sentence. He was in a wheelchair and may or may not have been handcuffed.

Rein, who joined the force in 1987, was considered in ”outstanding physical shape,” according to his supervisors.

”We can’t discriminate against folks because of their age,” said Rein’s boss, Col. James Wimberly.

Records show that Rein passed a certification physical in 2003 when he returned to the department after a three-year break.

”If you’re fit for duty,” Lamberti said, “you’re out there.”

Rein struggled with Mazza, deputies said, breaking a finger during the fight. He lost control of his .38-caliber revolver and was shot with it once in the chest, the bullet exiting through his back.

The officer was thrown from the van and left to die in the parking lot of the Diamond Dolls strip club on Powerline Road in Pompano Beach.

Source: MH

1. Policy for moving inmates will be reviewed, sheriff says. MH
2. Silence tells the story – another Broward sheriff’s deputy down. SS
3. Slain Deputy Transported Inmate Without Any Help. CBS4
4. BSO Deputy Death Latest In String Of Shootings. WPLG 10

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