A former Daytona Beach police officer, killed in the line of duty as a Palm Beach County SWAT deputy in 1982, was honored by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Friday.
Frank D. Genovese, 26, was killed June 3, 1982, during a standoff outside a Greenacres home.
Truck driver Nick Michael Tufaro, then 30, had barricaded himself in his Chalet IV townhouse on Lake Worth Road. Genovese, who was prone on the rooftop of a building across the street, was fatally shot in the forehead, and another deputy was shot in the arm, in a gun battle during the four-hour standoff.
Tufaro was acquitted after his lawyers contended another deputy’s bullets struck Genovese in the chaos. In 1989 Tufaro pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the sale of automatic weapons.
At Tufaro’s sentencing, PBSO Capt. Tom Thompson told The Palm Beach Post Tufaro “got away with murder” in the Genovese case.
Genovese, a New York native, was a Daytona Beach officer for 18 months before joining PBSO in January 1981. He is buried in Daytona Beach.