Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award 2022 Class, awarded on Sept. 28, 2023

Joseph Sapp, nominated by Branson Police Department

On December 12, 2022, Branson Police Department Sergeant Abe Jones responded to a call about a possible fight in progress in the parking lot of a Branson apartment complex. As Sergeant Jones attempted to arrest a suspect, the man violently assaulted him. Sergeant Jones was down on one knee as the man repeatedly punched him in the head. Joseph Sapp, who was 19-years-old at the time and lived in the apartment building, saw what was taking place and immediately responded. He shoved the assailant away from Sergeant Jones and then repeatedly struck the attacker. Mr. Sapp’s actions allowed Sergeant Jones to get back up on his feet and deploy his Taser to quell the assailant. Without regard for his own safety, Mr. Sapp, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2023 and is now stationed in Texas, took immediate action to help a law enforcement officer in need of assistance, preventing further injury to the officer, protecting the public, and assisting in the assailant being taken into police custody.

Shane Childress, nominated by Branson Police Department

On August 13, 2022, a head-on collision occurred about 150 feet away from Shimi’s Food Truck/Café on Fall Creek Road, just outside of Branson. A Jeep was in a ditch and burning. The front end of the vehicle was severely crushed and a passenger was screaming in pain from the smoke-filled vehicle. Smoke was also coming from the sedan that was involved in the crash. The restaurant owner, Shane Childress, immediately went to the scene with three fire extinguishers from his business. The driver of the sedan, who was alone, managed to get out of his car but the scene was extremely dangerous and vehicle traffic continued on the road. Childress had restaurant staff use a chair on casters from his business to wheel the injured man to the safety of the restaurant, with the assistance of a Branson Police officer. Mr. Childress then went to the burning Jeep. He deployed the fire extinguishers, but the fire continued to grow. A woman and child were able to get out of the back on their own. The front and side airbags had deployed in the front of the vehicle. Mr. Childress used kitchen knives to cut the driver’s airbags and helped her out of the vehicle. Next, he tried to get the passenger out. He was a large man, screaming in pain and having trouble breathing because of the thick smoke. The passenger door was locked so Mr. Childress climbed into the vehicle from the back driver side door and unlocked the front passenger door. Mr. Childress, who is 5-foot-7, then tried to get the trapped passenger out, without success. The man’s head was on the dashboard in the crushed vehicle; his left leg had been severely injured. At that point, the Branson Police Department’s Sergeant Tanner Muckenthaler and Officer Brendan Gamble arrived on the scene and immediately went to work cutting the victim’s seatbelt and then quickly but carefully extricating the severely injured man from the crushed passenger compartment as the fire continued to burn. The Jeep was fully engulfed in flames within 45 seconds of the victim being extricated by the officers. Had it not been for the quick and resourceful actions of Mr. Childress and Muckenthaler and Gamble, the trapped man would have likely succumbed to the smoke and fire.

Kevin Jeffries and Justin Parrack, nominated by Missouri State Highway Patrol

On July 5, 2022, Troop D troopers were dispatched to Missouri 13 in Greene County, where a vehicle was northbound in the southbound lanes. Upon investigation, troopers learned that a motorist driving an SUV had suffered a cardiac emergency and was unresponsive as his vehicle traveled north. The SUV traveled into the median and continued northbound. Two motorists who had been driving north separately – Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Parrack – parked their vehicles on the shoulder and ran to intercept the uncontrolled SUV. Jeffries and Parrack ran beside the vehicle in the median and attempted to awaken the occupant, who was slumped over the console toward the passenger seat. They then tried to enter the vehicle from the passenger side but the door was locked. They moved back to the driver side of the vehicle and resumed their efforts to awaken the driver. The vehicle had now shifted from the median to traveling northbound in the southbound passing lane of the four-lane highway. Oncoming traffic had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. Jeffries and Parrack were finally able to enter the SUV, steer it back into the median and stop the vehicle. Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Parrack now saw the driver was not breathing and was in cardiac arrest. They pulled him from the vehicle and began administering CPR. They continued until Ebenezer Fire Protection District personnel arrived. The victim, Richard Mogan of Eldorado Springs, had been driving home from a round of cancer radiation treatment in Springfield. He was subsequently treated by EMS personnel and transported to Mercy Hospital – Springfield, where he was treated and recovered. The Highway Patrol reunited him with Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Parrack at Troop D headquarters in December. Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Parrack acted bravely and without concern for their own safety. Their actions likely prevented a collision and saved Mr. Mogan’s life.