Medal Recipient Search
Kurt A. Schmutzler and Bradley E. Maudlin, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2021 Class
Awarded on: 09/07/2022
Medal of Valor
Late on the night of June 24, 2021, Sgt. Schmutzler was notified heavy rain had led to flash flooding in Amazonia, Mo., and the need for multiple rescues and evacuations. Sgt. Schmutzler immediately requested assistance from Cpl. Maudlin, a Patrol road officer with swift water rescue training. Cpl. Maudlin was off duty but quickly responded. Sgt. Schmutzler, a Marine Operations officer, deployed with an inflatable rescue boat. The pair first responded to a house with two men inside. It was surrounded by three to four feet of swift-moving floodwater. The officers decided the safest approach was to use pike poles to find a path through 80 yards of water to the residence and then carefully walked the two men out to safety. They next went to a house with five people trapped inside; two were elderly, and there was a young child. Because of the swirling waters and numerous obstacles in the water, they again opted not to utilize the boat. Carrying additional life-jackets, they made their way to the residence on foot, which quickly made clear it was too hazardous to attempt to walk out the trapped family. Sgt. Schmutzler and Cpl. Maudlin decided to utilize a 12-foot flat bottom boat they noticed near the house. They first put life jackets on a mother and her young child, loaded them into the boat and carefully walked the boat to safety through swift water that was up to four feet deep. The water had become deeper and more dangerous by the time they returned and attempted to move an elderly woman and a man in his 20s, neither of whom could swim. The swift current was sweeping the officers off their feet; waves rocked the boat, almost ejecting the two people inside. Cpl. Maudlin, controlling the back of the boat, quickly repositioned himself and pushed up on the left side of the boat, preventing it from capsizing. Sgt. Schmutzler, who is a swift water rescue instructor in the Patrol’s Marine Operations Division, said if not for Cpl. Maudlin’s quick reaction, the boat would have capsized and tossed both passengers into the water. Over the course of more than eight hours, Sgt. Schmutzler and Cpl. Maudlin rescued or evacuated a total of 27 people in Andrew and DeKalb counties.
Colton J. Beck, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2021 Class
Awarded on: 09/07/2022
Medal of Valor
On the night of December 10, 2021, Trooper Beck attempted to conduct a traffic stop after observing a vehicle run a red light in Springfield. The driver failed to stop and Trooper Beck began a pursuit. At a dead end, the driver drove off the road and down an embankment, where his vehicle became disabled. At the dead end, Trooper Beck exited his vehicle and approached the driver side of the disabled vehicle on foot. The suspect continued to push the accelerator in an attempt to flee. The driver was obscured because of the low light conditions and dark window tinting. Trooper Beck gave clear commands for the suspect to exit the vehicle; as he approached the driver door, the suspect fired a single shot from a shotgun through the window. Trooper Beck was struck in the face, neck, and upper torso. Although seriously wounded, Trooper Beck returned fire. He then moved to a tactical position and continued to exchange fire with the suspect. The gunman then fled on foot. When additional officers arrived, Trooper Beck, despite his injuries, remained calm and provided a description of the gunman, his direction of flight, and conveyed the continuing threat posed by the gunman, information that assisted in the capture of the suspect early the next morning.
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.)
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.”
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.
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.
Ryan W. Broeker, Devin R. Kitrel and Andrew C. Mattaline, Chesterfield Police Department
2020 Class
Awarded on: 09/01/2021
Medal of Valor
Early on the morning of Sept. 23, 2020, Chesterfield Police Officers Broeker, Kitrel and Mattaline were working the midnight shift to investigate a rash of auto break-ins as part of a plainclothes, undercover assignment. At about 2:45 a.m., they responded to a call for a vehicle that had struck a tree at a high rate of speed. The vehicle was extremely damaged, with the front end crushed in. As the officers approached the vehicle, they noticed the glow of fire beneath the car. They attempted to enter the vehicle, but the heavy damage prevented entry. The driver had been killed on impact. Additional officers arrived on the scene and they were able to get the car open and see an injured passenger, who was conscious but trapped – severely entangled in the wiring of the engine compartment of the mangled vehicle. Fire quickly fully engulfed the engine and passenger compartments. With no fire crews on scene, immediate action was required to save the victim’s life. Officers Broeker, Kitrel and Mattaline ignored the danger to themselves and amidst the fire, smoke and heat, worked together to cut the victim out of the wiring and debris. Officer Broeker used a fire extinguisher as the fire encroached farther, then assisted Officers Kitrel and Mattaline in pulling the victim from the burning wreckage. Moments after the victim had been freed, there was an explosion inside the car. The officers moved the victim farther away from the vehicle until medical help could arrive. Uniformed officers had spotted the vehicle numerous times traveling recklessly and at extreme speeds in the area. Despite the danger to themselves, and overcoming smoke, heat and fire, officers Broeker, Kitrel and Mattaline’s brave and decisive action likely saved the victim’s life. (Officer Kitrel is now an officer with the St. Peters Police Department.)
Keaton L. Ebersold, Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop H and Shannon Sherwood, Rock Port Police Department
2019 Class
Awarded on: 10/13/2020
Medal of Valor
On Jan. 23, 2019, Trooper Ebersold and Chief Sherwood responded to a call for a hostage situation on I-29 in Atchison County. A truck driver exited the vehicle with his hands up, saying a woman with a gun was in the sleeper cab with a child. Trooper Ebersold went to the passenger side; Chief Sherwood approached the driver side. Both doors were locked. A window punch was used to break the driver side window. The woman had her left arm around a small child and held a flare gun in her right hand, loaded and cocked, and pointed at the three-year-old’s head. The woman refused to negotiate and ordered Ebersold and Sherwood out of the vehicle. She pointed the flare gun at Ebersold as he attempted to speak with her, before pointing it back toward the child. As Chief Sherwood worked to calm and distract the woman, she slightly lowered the flare gun so it wasn’t aimed at the child. Trooper Ebersold immediately lunged inside the vehicle and wrapped his left hand around the hammer of the flare gun to lock it in place. Chief Sherwood and Trooper Ebersold struggled to control the woman while ensuring the safety of the child. Once Ebersold had the flare gun, he threw it out of the truck, and the woman was taken into custody. Trooper Ebersold and Chief Sherwood exhibited exceptional resourcefulness and tenacity to end the threat to the young child.
Thomas M. Buchness, Christian County Sheriff’s Office
2019 Class
Awarded on: 10/13/2020
Medal of Valor
On June 18, 2019, Deputy Sheriff Buchness responded to a call in the Sparta area for a young woman clinging to a large log in the Finley River with swift water conditions. She was suffering a panic attack and struggling to breathe. Deputy Buchness traveled through a wooded area and found the victim’s condition worsening. He threw her a long heavy duty extension cord and directed her to secure herself to the log. The woman was disoriented and was losing consciousness. She had been desperately holding on for some time and needed immediate attention. Deputy Buchness removed his duty gear, descended a steep embankment and carefully climbed out onto the log. Once he reached the victim, he reassured her she would be OK. As fire service personnel began to assemble at the riverbank, the victim was provided with a life jacket; the extension cord was used as a rescue rope for the victim and Deputy Buchness to safely get to the riverbank. The victim was treated by EMS. During an extremely tense situation, Deputy Buchness exhibited calm, decisive action and resourcefulness, which facilitated the rescue of a woman in imminent danger of drowning