TAMPA - Gun trader Hank Earl Carr had a foot in prison. He hated prison. It reminded him of beatings and made him feel powerless. But that day, May 19, 1998, blood spilled in a garage apartment on Crenshaw Street in Tampa. Carr shot and killed 4-year-old Joey Bennett, his girlfriend's baby boy, and told everyone it was an accident. The bleeding didn't stop until five were dead, including Carr. ``Good day to die. Sunny day,'' he called it. At first, he blamed Joey. Detectives doubted him, with reason. That day, he lied about his own name, assuming the identity of girlfriend Bernice Bowen's ex-husband, Joseph Lee Bennett, father to Joey and 5-year-old Kayla. The day ended with suicide in Hernando County, but not before Carr executed two veteran Tampa detectives - Randy Bell and Ricky Childers - and a fresh- faced state trooper named James Bradford Crooks. Fate delivered them to a man who hated cops, a felon who carried a handcuff key, plotting escape before he was even caught. Prosecutors plan to put the girlfriend on trial next week. They allege she helped Carr elude police by misleading them about his identity. Today, the Tribune retells a rampage, in the words of those who lived it, extracted from the files of prosecutors and police and from the memories of widows.

BERNICE BOWEN: My little boy this morning woke up and he said, `Daddy, I had a dream I could swim.'

HANK EARL CARR: We were getting ready to take him swimming and buy him some toys. And I picked up the gun.

BOWEN'S DAUGHTER, KAYLA: He always had them with him. One black one, one long one. And the one he shot my brother with, it was long.

CARR: I hit the wall with it and it went off. I blowed my little son away.

BOWEN: I heard a gunshot as I was going up the steps.

CARR: He was 4. Blond hair, brown eyes. Cutest little bugger. Tough. Strong. Brave.

BOWEN: No, I was not in the room.

KAYLA: My mom, she said she wasn't in the room, well, she was.

CARR: I immediately grabbed him up and ran for medical assistance. It was just too late. He was shot point-blank in the face.

BOWEN: We went to the O&B Deli, where we saw a police officer.

TAMPA POLICE OFFICER MICHAEL PETERSON: I told the driver to stay put. I would call an ambulance.

CARR: He was just moving too slow for the emergency situation. I told him, ``Look, I can't do it. My son's been shot. I got to go.''

OFFICER PETERSON: I yelled at him to go to the fire station, two blocks down Nebraska.

FIREFIGHTER ROY BURKETT: This couple came almost skidding into the station. I heard them screaming. ``Help us! Help my child! Help us!'' And so George Carter, who was sitting in the engine getting ready to move it, he got out, left it running, and they handed the child to him.

CARR: When I pulled him out of the car and gave him to the paramedics, I felt for his pulse again. It was gone.

MEDICAL EXAMINER LEE MILLER: The deceased was lying prone between two fire engines on the floor, covered with a sheet. There was an entrance gunshot wound of the right side of the nose.

TPD SGT. DAN GROSSI: I got some detectives to respond to the fire station, and I sent some detectives to the address where I was told that it occurred, at 709 1/2 East Crenshaw.

BOWEN: We were just standing on the side of the fire station, and he told me to tell everybody his name was Joseph Bennett.

TPD OFFICER JOHN SIMMONS: I met and interviewed Joseph Lee Bennett outside the fire station.

BOWEN: I'm sitting there, and the next thing I know, the police officers are chasing after them.

OFFICER SIMMONS: He started his car and fled north on Nebraska Avenue.

CARR: I wasn't under arrest. So I left and went back to get my daughter and to get the rifle for the cops, to show them. Well, while I was there, the cops showed up, and one of the cops grabbed his gun and said, ``Don't move.'' So I didn't move.

TPD OFFICER ANDREW PEDERSEN: I found this white male standing at the top of the stairs with a rifle in his hands. I made him put it down and ordered him downstairs.

CARR: They were sitting there talking to me. I said, ``Am I under arrest?'' They said, ``No.''

TPD CAPT. SAM DIAZ: I advised Detective [Rick] Stanton the subject was acting nervous and I described him to Detective Stanton as `spooky.'

CARR: I wanted to go be with my wife and see if my daughter was all right. So I took off.

SGT. GROSSI: He jumped up and ran as I was walking up the driveway, and I was somewhat startled by that. And I said, ``Who was that?'' and they said, ``He is the suspect.'' And so I said, ``We really need to find him.''

CARR: I hurt my leg. The cops surrounded me. They threw me in the back of the car. They took me downtown.

TPD DETECTIVE GREGORY STOUT: Rick Childers walked in and I was literally the only perrson in the office. I was doing some paperwork. He said that he had just been in a foot chase.

DETECTIVE STOUT: Hank Earl Carr was talking a mile a minute when he walked in our fice. And was extremely affable, as in, `Hi, how are you?'

SGT. GROSSI: Detectives Childers and [Randy] Bell had Hank Carr, and they were conducting an interview.

CARR: They asked me a bunch of questions. They called me a liar. I tried to tell them it was an accident.

TPD CPL. JERRY HERREN: I heard Ricky. He is real loud. Ricky is really emotional. Ricky comes out, walks into my office, and we begin talking about this.

TPD CPL. JAMES S. NOBLITT: Ricky went and got our tape recorder out and went back into the room.

DETECTIVE CHILDERS: This is going to be a taped interview conducted by Detective Rick Childers. ... Also present in this interview is gonna be Detective Randy Bell, also of homicide. The person being interviewed is gonna be a white male, Joseph Lee Bennett.

CPL. NOBLITT: The issue was did the baby drag the gun and get shot, which they never believed from the beginning, based on the investigation at the scene.

CHILDERS TO CARR: All right, how is Joey handling the rifle? Is he dragging it or holding it, carrying it, what?

CARR TO CHILDERS: He was kinda like letting it go. He had it by the barrel. He said it fell and he was just picking it up.

CHILDERS: Then you grab it and pick it up?

CARR: Right.

CHILDERS: And is that when the rifle goes off?

CARR: Yes, sir.

CHILDERS: Joe, again for the record, would you state your name, please.

CARR: Joseph Lee Bennett.

CPL. NOBLITT, AFTER INTERVIEWING BERNICE BOWEN: I concluded in my mind this was not Joseph Lee Bennett, just that fast. I went into the sergeant and captain, and I said, `Where [are] Ricky and Randy?'

SGT. GROSSI: They wanted to take him back to the crime scene.

CHILDERS' WIFE, VICKIE, TPD RECORDS MANAGER: I remember starting to get on the elevator. They said, ``You just missed your husband. He was just standing here with a suspect.'' He and Randy were with Hank Carr.

CPL. NOBLITT: The first thing I said was, `He is not Joseph Bennett. We need his fingerprints. As soon as they get back, let's fingerprint him.'

BOWEN'S MOTHER, CONNIE BOWEN: He was wanted for selling drugs to an undercover cop at a high school. And he was also wanted for questioning in a murder.

CARR: They took me back to the scene, which was bad enough. My son's blood was all over the floor and the walls. And I tried to explain to them exactly what happened.

DETECTIVE STANTON: We advised him that the blood spatter on the entertainment center and the phone book underneath it was not consistent with that story.

CARR: They started calling me a liar. They were taking me downtown to book me.

CARR'S MOTHER, SONYA GAIL COX: He was arrested periodically his whole life.

CARR: They put me back in the cop car, and I asked them, you know, `Am I going to prison?' They said, `Yes.'

CARR'S MOTHER: He said, `I would rather kill myself than have to go to jail again.' Oh, he said that all the time.

CARR: They tried to act like me and her [Bernice Bowen] got in some kind of fight or something. And the cop goes, `Did she shield herself with the child and you shot him anyway?' And I was like, `No way, no way, man.'

CPL. NOBLITT: I will tell you this: I personally have transported many confessed murderers in a police car with their handcuffs in the front. Because I always got more with sugar than salt.

CARR'S MOTHER: I knew he had a handcuff key before May 19. I didn't know he wore it around his neck.

BOWEN: He just always carried it around with him and I don't know why. Anywhere he went. Back pocket, I believe.

CARR: I got one of the handcuffs off. I reached up front and got the pistol away from the officer that was driving. The other one jumped in the back seat, trying to get it away. I shot them both in the face. I had to shoot one twice because I shot him and he was still trying to get the gun so I shot him again.

VICKIE CHILDERS: I remember suddenly being very cold. I went into a friend's office and I said, `I am just freezing.'

DONNA BELL: It was 1:45. I was sitting on the patio. I was going to eat my lunch. For some reason, it was very quiet. I remember sitting there, feeling very strange.

CARR: I got in the truck that was parked behind me and made the guy get out. I opened up the back of the cop car and grabbed my rifle. Then I took off up north.

CARR'S UNCLE, EARL REID: He was driving a little white pickup truck. It had red writing on it.

CARR'S MOTHER: He came in the back door. He was crying. He got ahold of me and he started hugging me.

CARR'S UNCLE: She pushed him away. She didn't want to be close to him with the blood on his shirt.

CARR'S MOTHER: He said, ``Mama, I just accidentally shot Joey.'' And I said, ``Well, calm down, calm down.'' And he said, ``No, Mama, it is too far gone for that.''

CARR'S UNCLE: He told his mother goodbye. I told him not to be foolish, to go to the police.

SGT. GROSSI: Capt. [Robert] Price had received a phone call at my desk that there were two people shot in a carjacking.

CPL. HERREN: My captain says, ``Can you go investigate a carjacking?'' I said, ``I can't. I am waiting on Ricky right now to respond back with the guy they arrested.''

DETECTIVE JOHN TINDALL: The first person I remember seeing was Sgt. M.D. Smith. I said, ``Sergeant, something is not right here, because we are supposed to be investigating two dead carjackers and I know you don't have tears in your eyes because of that.''

CPL. NOBLITT: I thought I was leaving Joey Bennett's investigation to go investigate a totally unrelated double homicide carjacking until I got to the scene.

DETECTIVE JULIE MASSUCCI: I said, ``Are you sure? I just saw them a little while ago.''

VICKIE CHILDERS: They told me, ``We need you to come with us. We need to talk to you.'' I thought it had something to do with the computers again. Then suddenly things didn't feel right. As we got halfway into the second- floor lobby, I said, ``Tell me here. Tell me now.'' And I stopped. And they held onto me, Capt. Price and Maj. [K.C.] Newcomb.

DETECTIVE MASSUCCI: These were two good friends of mine. These were partners that I had worked with for almost 10 years in the trenches. I just kind of faded to black.

VICTIM ADVOCATE DONNA WILSON: The demeanor on the eighth floor [of the police station] was total mayhem. It was chaos. Everybody was crying. Everybody was hysterical.

DETECTIVE MASSUCCI: I knew what we had to do. We had to identify him. And I knew that she [Bernice Bowen] was the only person that was going to be able to help us.

BOWEN, 12:35 P.M.: My boyfriend, I'm referring to as ... Joseph Bennett.

BOWEN, 3:45 P.M.: He says his name is Joseph Bennett. He goes by several different names. Joseph Bennett. He goes by Hank Carr. Let's see, Earl Reid. Uh, Boo.

BOWEN, 9:40 P.M.: I guess his name is Hank Carr.

DETECTIVE JERRY KEITH: When I found no booking photos of Joseph Bennett, I asked her to give me any names which she thought her boyfriend might be using. She told me to try the first name of James and the last names of Bennett, Reed, Carr, Cox and Bowen.

DETECTIVE MASSUCCI: I said, ``You need to help us. He has killed your son, and he has killed two police officers. We need to stop him before he kills someone else."

CARR: I was heading north when the cops started chasing me.

CPL. NOBLITT: He was northbound on 275. I heard that the FHP was following him. Not knowing what was going to transpire after that, I almost felt relieved.

FHP TROOPER JAMES CROOKS, IN PURSUIT: I'm behind the vehicle we had the BOLO [be on the lookout] on at this time. He just got off the interstate.

WITNESS DWIGHT HOPKINS: He pulled off to the side like he was going to stop and wait for the trooper.

FHP LT. GREG LAMONT, TO CROOKS: Stay away from him. Do not approach the vehicle by yourself. Stay away from the vehicle and wait for assistance. 1777, are you 10-48?

WITNESS BROCK WHETSTONE: He had no chance to even open his door. Once the cop stopped, the bad guy opened up.

HOPKINS: This happened very quickly. He was moving very fast. He pulled the weapon out, he turned, maybe took one step, fired at the trooper's car point blank, straight on. At that time the back window exploded.

LT. LAMONT: 1777, do not approach the vehicle by yourself. Stay back until you get assistance. 1777, are you listening to me?

WHETSTONE: I guarantee it was no hand gun. It had a very long barrel. He cocked the gun, walked right up to him, his window and shot him again.

SGT. GROSSI: I was on Floribraska and I received, through an alpha page, that a trooper had been shot.

NADINE LA MONTE, CROOKS' FIANCEE: Brad told me what to expect - a knock at the door. The trooper goes, '`Nadine La Monte? May I come in, please?'' His head's down. I said, '`I have a question: Is my Brad dead?''

PASCO SHERIFF'S RADIO LOG, 2:42 P.M.: Deputy [Jim] Campbell behind vehicle at I-75 and State Road 54.

2:44 P.M.: Carr fires at Deputy Campbell.

CARR: Ninety miles an hour, I almost wrecked twice.

2:47 P.M.: Shots fired at bridge at U.S. 41.

CARR: I ducked down and smashed the gas, but they hit me with I don't know how many rounds.

2:51 P.M.: Collision with Lamont. Shots fired.

CARR: Every underpass I went under, they would shoot at the truck.

2:52 P.M.: Shots fired at Hernando air unit.

CARR: The truck's all shot up.

2:55 P.M.: Shots fired at semi- truck driver.

CARR: They shot me. I'm shot. I've got bullets in me now.

2:57 P.M.: Shots fired at Lt. Bruce Schmelter.

CARR: They shot my tires out.

2:58 P.M.: Carr exits I-75 at State Road 50 and pulls into a Shell gas station with 51 bullet holes in the truck.

HOSTAGE STEPHANIE KRAMER, STATION CLERK: I heard screeching of tires. Then I seen this truck roll and a guy fall out of his truck window. Black T-shirt and shorts.

CPL. ROBERTO BATISTA: He was already in Hernando County when I spoke with him. He said he had a hostage.

CARR: Her name is Stephanie and no harm will come to her.

KRAMER: He had two guns and his leg was messed up. He was limping.

CARR: I guess I was shot in the butt but I may have been shot in the back. I don't know. There's a huge hole in my butt and it's probably just the one, one shot. But there's something mashing on my spine. I can feel it. I think it's the bullet.

KRAMER: It was wrapped and he had me unwrap it, and it had a gash in it and it was bleeding. He had it wrapped with an Ace bandage.

CARR: I got a leg I can't even walk on. And I'm bleeding a lot. I got a huge hole in me. I think it was a .45. Had to have been a .45.

KRAMER: The phone started ringing. I know that he talked to some reporters.

CARR: Do me a favor. My real name isn't Joseph Lee Bennett.

RADIO NEWS DIRECTOR DON RICHARDS: What is it?

CARR: Hank Earl Carr.

KRAMER: He wants to talk to his wife. Before he lets me go, that's what he wants.

CARR: What did you tell the cops?

BOWEN: I didn't tell them anything.

CARR: Well, the cat's out of the bag I'm not Joseph Lee Bennett.

BOWEN: Yeah, we know that.

CARR: Are you in trouble for any of that?

BOWEN: No.

CARR: Look, she's got some things. A couple of letters I want you to give Mama, a letter to Kayla, a letter to you. Pictures of me and some money. I gave her my gold chain.

KRAMER: The key was in his pocket. He took the necklace off and then took the key and put it on it and handed it to me. Handed me all of this and asked me to give it to her.

CARR'S LETTER: Dear Kayla, I'm so sorry. I loved you and Joey with all my heart and I didn't mean to get in this trouble. But remember I will always love y'all and I'll probably be in heaven to see Joey. All my love, Daddy. ``Sunshine,'' by Nazareth, I dedicate to you.

The final act

CARR: Dear Lord, forgive me for my sins. Please take me to heaven to be with my little son, Joey. Please watch over my babies while I'm gone and make life easier for Denise [Bernice]. Please let her hook up with a good man that'll take care of her and Kayla. Please let her have a happy life after this. Amen.

BOWEN: Baby, let Stephanie go. Don't be stupid. Please, for me. Do you really love me?

CARR: You know I do with all my heart.

7:20 P.M.: Kramer released unharmed.

KRAMER: He goes, ``Go, tell my wife that I love her. Give her a hug.'' Halfway out, I turned back to look. I was afraid he had the gun up and he was going to shoot me.

BOWEN: OK, baby, don't do this to me.

CARR: Baby, the gun is to my head.

BOWEN: Boo, I love you. Don't be stupid.

CARR: They just busted off a gas bomb in here or something.

BOWEN: Boo, they did not. I love you. Don't do nothing stupid. Please.

CARR: I'm dying here. I got to go. I love you. I love you with all my heart, baby.

BOWEN: Boo, don't. Boo, don't. No.

7:29 P.M.: Carr kills himself with a gunshot to the head.

Patty Ryan can be reached at (813) 259-7605.