Two Hispanic New York Police Department officers were ambushed and killed after responding to a 911 call, and the rookie cop who brought down the assailant was awarded the Medal of Valor by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, the country’s highest-ranking award for bravery. It is the highest honor to be given. of a public safety officer. Six other officers were honored at the same function.
Three New York police officers, another from Houston, a third from Colorado, a deputy sheriff from Ohio and three firefighters, also from New York, received medals at a White House ceremony shortly before Biden left. Japan to participate in the Group of Seven meeting.
Biden said, “I don’t know them all, but I do know them.” “From small towns to big cities, they are cut from the same cloth. You run into danger when everyone else is running from danger,” he said in his speech.
Biden explained that the award is given for “actions beyond the call of duty”, singling out the officers’ families to thank them.
In full action
NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora and his partner, Jason Rivera, were shot while responding to a call about a family dispute at a Harlem apartment on January 21, 2022. Officer Sumit Sullan shot and killed the gunman, ending the deadly encounter moments after it began and keeping civilians safe. Rivera died that night, with Mora being pronounced dead four days later. The families of both the officers accepted their awards, which were given posthumously.
The fallen police officers were no strangers to tensions between the NYPD and some of the policing communities; They had both seen him growing up. The duo tried to be a catalyst for change when they became police officers, but didn’t get the break they deserved while shooting for the 2022 series against police officers in the city.
“I think this is one of the toughest jobs in America that you signed up for,” the president said in awarding the medal on Wednesday. “You represent the best of who we are as Americans.”
Rivera, 22, had been a police officer for more than a year. Mora, 27, was in his fourth year in office. All three were posthumously promoted to detectives: the fallen officer and Sullan, at a ceremony in which they were awarded Detective Shield No. 332, symbolizing the three from the 32nd Precinct where they worked in Manhattan.
The country’s largest police department has about 35,000 officers; The next largest is Chicago with 13,000.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the recipients showed “extraordinary courage” beyond the call of duty.
“At the end of every shift, you’re there,” he told the families. “It is your care and encouragement that makes it possible for our public safety officers to do their jobs. We are very grateful to you.”
More distinction
- Biden also honored three New York City firefighters for their bravery, including Lt. Justin Hespeler, who rescued an infant child from a burning home. “That’s true heroism,” Biden said.
- Firefighter Patrick Thornton, aboard the FDNY boat that rescued a man trapped under an overturned boat in Staten Island waters, was also honored.
- Lt. Jason Hickey, also retired, was at the FDNY Marine Training Unit when he received a distress call from a man in the Harlem River, a fast-moving tidal strait between the Hudson and East Rivers. Hickey jumped in and saved the man from drowning.
- Corporal Jeffrey Farmer, Littleton, Colorado Police Department. Farmer was responding to gunshots, possibly from a car window, and followed the suspect to an apartment door where the man opened fire, wounding Farmer’s partner. The farmer pulled his companion into his police car and took himself to the hospital, saving his life.
- Deputy Bobby Hau Pham of the Clermont County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office. Pham rescues a drowning woman who drove her car into the lake even though she cannot swim.
- Sergeant Kendrick Ciampo of the Houston, Texas Police Department. Ciampo was working a second job at a Houston-area Galleria when he heard on the radio that a heavily armed man wearing a black mask was walking through the mall, near where a group of children were gathering for a dance competition . Ciampo arrested the suspect, who was carrying an AR-15 rifle, a pistol and 120 rounds of ammunition. No one got hurt.
