Officer Anthony Williams, age 27, became the third officer killed in three months of 1975. He and his wife Ann, also a police officer, interrupted three men robbing the 7-Eleven store at 5603 Hesperides Street at approximately 10:30 p.m.
Officer Williams, off-duty at the time, had left his wife and 4-year-old son in their car as he headed inside to buy milk. When he saw the robbers, he crouched in the door and called for his wife's gun.
Meanwhile, Gary Barker, an auxiliary Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy waiting in a back room to apprehend the robbers, emerged with pistol drawn. Gunfire erupted and a bullet ripped through Williams' arm and into his chest.
Ann Williams jumped from the car and grabbed her gun from the ground near her husband. She fired three shots, one of which hit suspect Vito Mikenas in the buttocks; she was also able to handcuff another suspect who stumbled from the store, shot by Barker. The third suspect was also captured. All were later convicted.