By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
Monday, January 24, 2011
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster wipes a tear outside Bayfront Medical Center as police Chief Chuck Harmon announces the deaths of two officers. “This is uncharted territory,” Foster said.
ST. PETERSBURG — It was a different Mayor Bill Foster on display before television cameras and City Hall workers Monday after a shootout left two of his police officers dead.
Gone was the laid-back manner that marked Foster's relatively placid first year in office and the cool, abstract lawyer who liked to debate the finer points of zoning laws and budget. In its place was a visibly shaken Foster, trying to make sense of two killings in a city that he says he knows better than anyone.
"It's hard to get your hands around that we lost two," Foster said at the end of an afternoon news conference. "This ...