Remembering Officer Thomas Tarantino

Officer Thomas G. Tarantino was the first Martinez police officer to be killed in the line of duty, on April 21, 1973.

With the help of Martinez Chief of Police Gary Peterson and surviving documents, this story is made available to us.

Thirty-eight years ago today, Tarantino arrived at the station for the end of his watch. But he never made it home. He was killed by a man he initially thought was a stranded motorist on Highway 4.

The call came in as a stranded motorist on Highway 4 near Alhambra Avenue with no sheriff or CHP unit available to respond.

Tarantino volunteered to take the call. He left the station and headed to Highway 4 to render assistance.

Highway 4 wasn’t a freeway in 1973. It was a simple roadway with traffic lights at major intersections such as Alhambra Avenue. 

What happened after this was pieced together by witnesses passing by and physical evidence.

When Tarantino arrived, he saw a man lying on the side of the roadway next to a pick-up. The officer was seen by a witness checking the pulse of the man later identified as Curtis Lee Morrison.

Another witness later said Tarantino was searching Morrison.

He searched Morrison and found a small caliber revolver, which he slipped into the shirt pocket of his uniform.

What Tarantino could not have known then was that the gun had been used in the murder of an Antioch woman just days before in an armed robbery.

What is theorized from physical evidence is that Morrison reached into the bed of the pickup, grabbed a bottle and struck  Tarantino in the head. He and Tarantino fell to the ground, then Morrison wrestled Tarantino’s revolver from him and shot him in the side.

A witness saw Morrison stand over the officer, kick and hit him, and shoot him again.

Morrison was convicted of Tarantino's murder and remains in prison today.

Martinez Police Chief Gary Peterson, who has appeared at Morrison’s parole hearings, said: “He still denies he killed officer Tarantino.”