Medal Recipient Search
Bryant E. Gladney, Boone County Fire Protection District
2021 Class
Awarded on: 09/07/2022
Red, White and Blue Heart Award
Before dawn on December 22, 2021, Assistant Chief Gladney was overseeing the Boone County Fire Protection District’s response to a traffic crash on westbound Interstate 70. Because a box truck was on its side blocking the right lane and shoulder of the highway, Chief Gladney had activated his emergency warning equipment and had taken a blocking/warning position to the east of the crash scene. Before Chief Gladney could exit his vehicle, a tractor trailer traveling at a high rate of speed in the driving lane failed to slow down and struck Chief Gladney’s vehicle, causing catastrophic damage to the vehicle and killing Chief Gladney. Chief Gladney had spent a total of more than 36 years with the fire protection district and emergency medical services. He ran the district’s EMS bureau and training bureau, where he mentored the next generation of firefighters. He had responded to Ground Zero following the September 11 attacks as a member of Missouri Task Force 1, the state’s federal urban search and rescue team.
Jason M. Weggemann and Ronald R. Burgess, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
On March 21, 2020, Sergeant Weggemann was conducting traffic enforcement on I-44 in the Villa Ridge area. At about 9:30 p.m., he attempted to stop a vehicle driving in excess of 90 miles an hour. The driver ignored Sergeant Weggemann’s lights and sirens and refused to pull over. Deputy Sheriff Ronald Burgess quickly joined the pursuit. Ahead of the pursuit, another deputy sheriff deployed spike strips, which disabled the fleeing vehicle. The fleeing motorist then abruptly pulled into a gas station that was open for business. Deputies moved to block the vehicle from attempting to exit. Immediately upon stopping, the driver exited his vehicle and fired a handgun multiple times at Deputy Burgess, whose patrol car had yet to come to a complete stop. As Deputy Burgess took cover behind his dashboard, the gunman began firing at Sergeant Weggemann. With deputies under fire and customers and gas station employees endangered, Weggemann and Burgess were forced to return fire. Each was seriously wounded after being shot by the gunman but, despite their wounds, they were able to shoot the gunman and end the tremendous threat to everyone at the scene.
Michael J. Ottolini and Lee Alex Clawson, Jefferson City Police Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
On the night of April 15, 2020, Jefferson City Police Department officers conducted an investigation into ongoing drive-by shootings into homes on the city’s west side. A suspect vehicle was identified and an officer attempted to make a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop and a pursuit began. After a nine-minute pursuit through several neighborhoods, the driver and a passenger fled the vehicle. While another officer pursued the driver, Sergeant Ottollini, who had joined the pursuit, and Officer Clawson, who had arrived on-scene to assist, pursued the passenger into a wooded area. It was dark and the area contained thick brush and downed trees. Early in the foot chase, Sergeant Ottolini saw the suspect reach into his waistband for what he believed was a weapon. Officer Clawson jumped over a chain-link fence and tackled the suspect to the ground. While struggling with the suspect, Officer Clawson was shot twice in the abdomen. Officer Clawson now tried to push away the gun, which he saw in the man’s right hand. He called out to Sergeant Ottolini, “he shot me.” As the gunman continued to fight Officer Clawson, Sergeant Ottolini, to protect Clawson from being shot again, pulled him away from the gunman and drew his service pistol. The gunman, still armed, and posing a threat to both officers, was shot by Sergeant Ottolini, ending the threat. He died at the scene. Officer Clawson was transported to a hospital. His ballistic vest had prevented one round from penetrating his body. The second round caused a laceration to his lower torso. After pursuing a gunman suspected of terrorizing a neighborhood and Officer Clawson being shot by the suspect, Clawson and Sergeant Ottolini displayed tremendous courage under duress in ending the threat to themselves and the community. (Lee Alex Clawson has been promoted to detective with Jefferson City Police.)
Kurtis H. Brown, nominated by Missouri State Highway Patrol
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award
On May 27, 2020, an armored truck accidentally traveled off the right side of Route J in Camden County, overcorrected, crossed the centerline and slid off the left side of the road. It then crashed into a large tree, which caused the armored truck to catch fire. The tremendous impact with the tree also jammed the doors shut. The driver and passenger, unable to open the doors and surrounded by thick bulletproof glass were trapped within the vehicle, which was filling with smoke as the fire grew. Southwest Electric Cooperative staking technician Kurtis Brown was returning to his office in Preston when he noticed a truck stopped in the middle of the road and a distressed woman. She told him two men were trapped inside the burning truck off to the side of the road. As the woman spoke with a 911 operator, Brown went to the armored truck. The passenger, who was in better shape than the driver, said “help us out, we can’t get out.” Brown rushed to his work truck and retrieved a hammer and a fire extinguisher. When he returned and told the passenger he planned to break the glass, his heart sank when he was told it was bulletproof glass and the truck was armored. The hammer had no effect on the windows. Brown used the fire extinguisher but the fire still burned out of control. Brown next tried to use his hammer to beat back the areas where the truck body was jamming the passenger door. As he worked his way down the door, the two men inside kept pushing on the door, trying to unlatch it. Finally, as the flames engulfed more of the truck and the smoke grew worse, the men inside forced the door open. One of the rescued men said of the resourceful and unrelenting Kurtis Brown, “He saved two lives that day.”
Heather M. Anderson, Springfield Police Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
On the morning of June 9, 2020, a man acting erratically briefly entered Springfield Police Department headquarters, returned outside and urinated on the building. He then repeatedly drove through the building’s west parking lot. Officer Mark Priebe and Sergeant Anderson both went to the parking lot to investigate. Officer Priebe walked south and Sergeant Anderson walked north. At this point, the man, driving a white SUV, reentered the parking lot and drove in the direction of Officer Priebe at a high rate of speed. Officer Priebe motioned for the driver to stop and pull into a parking space. Instead, the driver immediately turned sharply, accelerated and headed straight for Officer Priebe. The officer attempted to move out of the vehicle’s path but he was stuck, run over, and pinned under the vehicle, which was now blocked by a bollard on a sidewalk. With Officer Priebe pinned underneath, the engine revving, and the driver appearing to be attempting to move the vehicle, Sergeant Anderson swiftly moved toward the driver side of the SUV, repeatedly calling for the driver to stop. When he did not, she fired her duty weapon, striking the driver in the upper arm. The driver stopped, put the vehicle in park, raised his hands in the air and surrendered to Sergeant Anderson. With Officer Priebe’s life in immediate peril, Sergeant Anderson took swift and decisive action to end the threat and save Priebe’s life. Officer Priebe, a 24-year police veteran was paralyzed, and while he spent months undergoing rehabilitation, he is confined to a wheelchair. The investigation revealed that the assailant had sent a text message the morning of the attack that he intended to “run a cop over.”
Mitchell D. Griffin, Dustin P. Hitchcock and Michael W. Mertz, St. John Police Department; Chad W. Hembree, Woodson Terrace Police Department; and Darion Meeks, Kinloch Fire Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Governor's Medal
On the night of June 22, 2020, first responders were dispatched to an Applebee’s restaurant on St. Charles Rock Road in St. John for an active shooter incident with several victims. A customer had left his table, retrieved a gun from his vehicle, and reentered the restaurant, shooting randomly. At the scene, witnesses informed St. John Police officers Griffin, Hitchcock and Mertz that the gunman had fled and that there were three gunshot victims inside. Two victims were on one side of the restaurant; the third was on the other side. Officers Griffin and Mertz first went to the two victims who were together. One was already deceased. Officers Griffin and Mertz tended to the survivor, whose injuries were serious, but not life threatening. There was now a loud commotion on the other side of the restaurant. There, Officer Hitchcock and Captain Darion Meeks of the Kinloch Fire Department were providing life-saving care to a gunshot victim who was in desperate need of immediate attention. It was a fellow firefighter from the Kinloch department who had been shot while off-duty and dining at the restaurant with Meeks. Officer Mertz, as on-scene supervisor, oversaw securing the chaotic crime scene, preservation of evidence and identifying witnesses. Griffin went to the victim’s aid, assisting Captain Meeks and Officer Hitchcock. The victim had been shot in the head and was bleeding profusely as she lay on the floor between rows of tables. She also had injuries to both arms. Officer Hitchcock applied a tourniquet to the victim’s left arm and advised St. Louis County dispatch to expedite an ambulance to the scene. Hitchcock and Meeks then determined there was no time to wait for an ambulance because of the severity of the trauma – immediate transport to a hospital was required in a patrol vehicle. Woodson Terrace Police Officer Chad Hembree, Officer Griffin and Captain Meeks then carried the victim outside to Officer Griffin’s patrol vehicle. Griffin then rushed the victim to DePaul Hospital, with Captain Meeks continuing to provide medical care to the victim. In the middle of a chaotic shooting scene, through a combination of teamwork, quick-thinking and resourcefulness, the actions of Captain Meeks, and officers Hitchcock, Griffin, Hembree and Mertz played a crucial role in saving the life of an innocent victim. The alleged gunman was arrested early the next day. (Officer Mertz is now an officer with the Crestwood Police Department.)
Jason A. Ashby, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
On the evening of July 24, 2020, Corporal Ashby was off duty and a passenger on a boat with four others on Lake of the Ozarks. As the boat traveled south near the 18-mile marker of the main channel just after midnight, it was struck on the port side by another boat in a major crash. Corporal Ashby was knocked unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he and the boat operator immediately went to assist the three other passengers, a mother, father and their 13-year-old daughter. The mother had been killed in the crash. A resident on shore flashed an exterior light. Corporal Ashby shouted for the person to call 911 and request three ambulances and a helicopter. Working in the darkness, Ashby found that the teenager was not breathing and had no pulse. He moved her to the rear bench of the boat and began CPR. At one point the patient had a weak pulse but it quickly faded. The boat operator was tending to the girl’s father, who had a weak pulse and shallow breathing. Corporal Ashby directed the operator to restart the boat and head for the shore. At the shore, Corporal Ashby carried the girl off the boat and continued to perform CPR on a dock for several more minutes. Eventually, the girl began breathing again. When EMS arrived, Corporal Ashby and an unidentified man carried the girl off the dock up a steep flight of stairs. EMS took over her care, and then flew her and her father to a hospital. Corporal Ashby was later transported to a hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. The girl spent time on a ventilator and her father required surgery, but they have each made remarkable recoveries. The operator of the other vessel was charged with boating while intoxicated. Corporal Ashby’s decisive action and relentless determination in an emergency situation, despite his own injuries, saved the young girl’s life.
Lendon J. Blanchard, Evan G. Clements and Christopher A. Runion, nominated by Lamar Police Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award
On the evening of Aug. 1, 2020, a shooting occurred in a Carthage hotel. A gunman had killed one victim and shot another before stealing a car at knifepoint and fleeing the area. There was an extensive search. Just before 8 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 2, Lamar Police Officer John Simpson responded to a call for a suspicious person in the First Christian Church of Lamar. A man meeting the description of the killer was inside the church. Officer Simpson attempted to detain the man, giving the command to place his hands behind his back and turn around. Instead, the suspected murderer responded, “I’m not going back, I can’t go back.” He then reached inside the waistband of his pants and pulled out a knife. Officer Simpson tried to restrain the man, and they crashed into a bookshelf and then to the floor where they continued to struggle. Simpson sustained a cut to his hand. Church members Lendon Blanchard, Evan Clements and Christopher Runion all immediately went to the officer’s aid. All three assisted the officer as he struggled with the suspected killer, grabbing the assailant’s arms to prevent further injury to the officer. Despite the risks to themselves, Blanchard, Clements and Runion bravely and selflessly came to the aid of Officer Simpson and prevented further injury to the officer. With their assistance, Officer Simpson was able to take the murder suspect into custody.
Jayden Groves, nominated by St. Louis Fire Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award
On Aug. 8, 2020, a 22-month-old boy wandered away from a large family gathering in the Hyde Park area of St. Louis. His family began searching for him frantically. The toddler’s 11-year-old brother, Jayden Groves, knowing that his little brother liked to play in water, immediately headed toward a nearby pond. When he discovered his brother floating face down, he jumped into the pond and pulled out his brother. As a relative began providing CPR, Jayden raced to the nearby St. Louis Fire Department Engine House No. 8, which he had visited many times in the past. He pounded on the front door. Firefighter Dave Rodriguez ran with Jayden to the scene. The little boy was still unconscious and unresponsive. The firefighter began rescue breaths until Engine 8 arrived and assisted with ventilation. The child showed signs of improvement during transport to a hospital, which was assisted with an escort from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The boy has made a full recovery, all because of the calm, mature and decisive actions taken by 11-year-old Jayden in a stressful emergency situation.
John K. Gresco II, St. Charles County Police Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
On Aug. 9, 2020, St. Charles County was inundated with four inches of rain in two hours. At about 1 a.m. Officer Gresco was dispatched to a report of a vehicle stuck in flood water on Pitman Road. Upon arrival, Officer Gresco found a different vehicle stuck in rapidly rising flood water. The driver was climbing out of his window to get onto the vehicle’s roof. Officer Gresco had grown up in the area and knew immediate action was required because, when it floods, the creek nearby routinely rises to 7 to 10 feet, with an unforgiving current. As the water rose above the level of the trunk, Officer Gresco quickly moved through the water to the vehicle, which was now being carried toward the rising creek, with the driver on the roof. Gresco knew if the vehicle reached the swift water of the creek, the driver’s chances of survival would be slim. Officer Gresco was clinging to a submerged guardrail, to avoid being swept away. With the vehicle floating in his direction and with the driver on the roof desperately calling for assistance, Gresco risked his own life and moved toward the vehicle. When the vehicle ran into some brush, Gresco convinced the victim to jump to him. Gresco grabbed the victim and then helped him maneuver through the flood water to safety. In the dark, in rising, swirling flood water and with no time to wait for rescue teams and equipment, Officer Gresco calmly and courageously risked his own life to take immediate action, saving a flooding victim about to be swept away.