Showcasing raw body-cam footage of its officers successfully saving the lives of numerous victims—including the narrow save of a pilot by police seconds before a train slammed into the wreckage of his crashed plane—the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) honored officers at its annual ceremony on Oct. 20.
“There’s no harder job in America today than being a police officer,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said while opening the “Above and Beyond Awards” event. “It’s a tireless and thankless job.”
One such scene shown during the luncheon was that of Mission Area officers Nicole Minarik and Miguel Alarcon after stopping a gang member driving a stolen car in the Mission area in July of 2018. During the encounter, the suspect produced a handgun and fired at Minarik, striking her in the leg.
“[The suspect] ended up shooting me in the femur, which broke it. But I didn’t know it at the time, I just thought I had been shot,” Minarik said in her video statements screened at the luncheon.
After Minarik fell to the ground, the suspect then turned his attention toward Alarcon and fired a single round, missing him. Alarcon then shot and killed the suspect, potentially saving both the officers’ lives.
Minarik survived and received the Purple Heart, while Alarcon was awarded the Medal of Valor for bravery.
LAPD also honored Foothill Division patrol officers Christopher Aboyte, Damien Castro, Robert Sherlock, and Sgt. Joseph Cavestany for saving the life of pilot Mark Jenkins, whose plane crashed in January on a portion of the Metrolink railroad in Pacoima.
“We didn’t really have time to think at that moment. We just acted,” Sherlock told The Epoch Times.
The pilot had become trapped inside his plane, and a train was fast approaching.
Seconds before the train collided with the plane, officers pulled the pilot out. As they quickly shuffled back, the train ran head-on into the downed plane, destroying it just yards away. All four officers received the Medal of Valor.
“It was like a scene from a movie,” master of ceremonies and Fox 11 news anchor Elex Michaelson said during the ceremony.
Additionally, Southwest division SWAT officers Andrew Rea and Rodney Williams were honored with the Medal of Valor and Purple Heart, respectively, for their heroism involving a barricaded suspect in March 2021 near the University of Southern California.
In that incident, police responded to a call of a man under the influence of narcotics firing a rifle in the air who later barricaded himself into a home in the neighborhood. After hours of negotiations failed, police lobbed tear gas into the home, at which time the suspect shot Williams in the chest. Rea then pulled his colleague, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, to safety.
The suspect then exited the house shooting indiscriminately and shot Williams again, this time in the face. Ultimately, the suspect was killed by another officer at the scene.
Eight other officers and sergeants were additionally awarded for their service, during the event at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
