Medal Recipient Search
Leon Whitener III, St. Louis Fire Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Medal of Valor
On April 22, 2017, a call went out for a structure fire with a person trapped in St. Louis’s Botanical Heights neighborhood. The closest fire station was responding to an earlier reported fire, so there would be a delay in the first company’s arrival. Captain Whitener, who was off duty, immediately responded. He found thick gray smoke pouring out of the two-story residential building. Residents outside the building told him a wheelchair-bound tenant was trapped on the second floor. Captain Whitener charged into the building and up the stairs without any protective equipment. He was followed by a tenant from another unit in the building, Raymond Rayford. The smoke was filling the hallway. Smoke billowed into the room where they found the woman in her wheelchair. She futilely covered her face to try to block out the smoke. Captain Whitener knew time was short because the smoke was building pressure in the room. They pushed the wheelchair to the apartment doorway but furniture blocked the exit. Mr. Rayford threw the furniture out of the apartment to clear a path. Whitener and Rayford then hoisted the wheelchair over the stair railing and down the stair, careful to protect the woman. Once outside, they heard glass shattering. The fire had grown tremendously and was now venting itself out of the room from which they had just rescued the woman. Captain Whitener’s swift and decisive action while off-duty resulted in the rescue of an elderly disabled woman who could not have survived on her own.
David Watkins, Jr., Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Medal of Valor
On March 10, 2017, a team from the Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office was serving a search warrant to a convicted felon suspected of narcotics trafficking at a second-story apartment in Wyatt, Mo. Lieutenant Watkins had the lead as the team announced their presence and breached the apartment door. Lieutenant Watkins entered the front door and immediately took fire from the suspect. Other members of the entry team were forced to take cover on the ground outside. Shot in the left leg, and trapped in the apartment with the gunman, Lieutenant Watkins crawled into a nearby room. Unable to stand, he sat against a wall. Outside, his team called for Lieutenant Watkins. Watkins did not answer so as not to reveal his position to the gunman. The gunman, still armed with an AR-15, walked to the front door, where officers were taking cover, and looked outside. He then turned and saw Lieutenant Watkins and began raising his weapon. Lieutenant Watkins fired his weapon striking the gunman in the upper torso, ending the threat to him and the other officers. Watkins then staggered to his feet and held the gunman at gunpoint until his team members took control of the scene. While under fire and while wounded, Lieutenant Watkins demonstrated incredible courage while trapped inside an apartment with a gunman.
Eli Dorsey and Brandon Sherman, Gladstone Department of Public Safety
2016 Class
Awarded on: 10/28/2017
Medal of Valor
On the night of Nov. 20, 2016, Corporal Dorsey stopped a speeding vehicle with two occupants on U.S. Highway 69. Detecting the odor of marijuana, he called for backup and Sgt. Sherman responded. The vehicle’s passenger then fled on foot. Sherman quickly reached the fleeing suspect, who then pulled a handgun from his waistband. Sherman wrestled for control of the gun and was shot in the hand. As the suspect prepared to fire again, Dorsey fired his service weapon, striking the gunman, who succumbed to his injuries. Sherman, though wounded, secured the driver of the vehicle without further incident. During a traffic stop on a dark highway, Sherman and Dorsey – in the face of grave danger – disarmed a gunman. When fired upon the officers ended the threat to the community.
Adam Brannin, Jason Francis and Rusty Rives, Joplin Police Department
2016 Class
Awarded on: 10/28/2017
Medal of Valor
Early on Aug. 13, 2016, Joplin Police Captain Rives and Officers Brannin and Francis responded to a call for a gunman firing multiple shots inside a residence. Before reaching the scene, the officers encountered the gunman firing numerous shots from an AR-15 into a church van at a traffic intersection. Francis stopped and provided assistance as Brannin and Rives pursued the gunman in a fleeing vehicle, who soon fired more shots into another vehicle. Next the gunman drove back toward the church van shooting location. Francis moved a victim with multiple gun-shot wounds out of the line of fire and prepared to provide lethal cover. Brannin and Rives continued in pursuit. The gunman eventually abandoned the vehicle while it was still moving and Brannin and Rives quickly captured him. In all, three victims at two scenes were struck by gunfire, with two of them sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. Three other victims sustained fragmentation injuries. When a gunman brought terror to the streets of Joplin, these three officers responded heroically and ended the threat of further violence. (Rives is now chief of the Lamar Police Department.)
Jason Glendenning and Tyler Zimmerman, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2016 Class
Awarded on: 10/28/2017
Medal of Valor
On July 16, 2016, following heavy rain, Sgt. Glendenning and Trooper Zimmerman were deployed on a jet boat in the Niangua River in Dallas County to search for potential flooding victims. There were swift-water conditions with lots of debris in the river. They found a raft with four occupants pinned against a large downed tree. The raft was taking on water. The officers, using their extensive swift-water rescue training, quickly maneuvered the boat and rescued a woman who had fallen out. Next, they maneuvered their craft to rescue a second woman who had been thrown from the raft and was tangled in the tree and could not keep her head above water. After getting all four boaters to safety, Sergeant Glendenning and Trooper Zimmerman returned to the downed tree to cut down large branches that were a continuing danger. While working on the tree, another raft with five occupants was swept up into the tree. One occupant was immediately ejected and the raft was sinking. Working as a team, the officers rescued all of them, and then saved a kayaker and a young girl on an inner tube who had been ejected and entangled in the tree and ropes. Acting swiftly and skillfully as a team, Glendenning and Zimmerman bravely saved the lives of several people in highly treacherous flooding conditions.
Jordan V. Selsor, Meramec Ambulance District
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Dec. 29, 2015, Paramedic Selsor was part of an EMS team responding to a call from a motorist caught in floodwater between Catawissa and Pacific with water rushing into the vehicle and reaching the caller’s neck; contact was then lost. With no other responders or a boat on scene, the two paramedics had to act quickly. Selsor donned a life-vest and grabbed a pry axe. He then climbed into the bucket of a farmer’s front-end loader and had the farmer drive him to the submerged car. With the bucket extended from the tractor, Selsor jumped onto the trunk of the car, which was floating. He smashed out the rear windshield, which flooded more water into the vehicle but could not reach the victim in the front seat. Selsor then climbed onto the roof of the car and smashed out the sunroof. Unable to see in the muddy water, he felt around for the victim and began pulling her out by her hair. Eventually, he got a better hold of the victim and managed to extract her through the sunroof. Selsor stood on the car roof knee high in water with the patient until a Pacific Fire Protection District launched a boat and transported him and the victim to shore. The hypothermic patient was treated en route to the emergency room. Selsor was treated for numerous cuts and abrasions from the rescue. Acting quickly and decisively and without concern for his personal safety, Paramedic Selsor saved the motorist’s life.
David H. Brown and Robert W. Garrett, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2015, as Missouri was experiencing record rainfall and flooding, Marine Operations Corporal Brown and Trooper Garrett responded to a call for a man clinging to a tree in the flooded Pomme De Terre River. The man had attempted to cross a bridge in Polk County on foot and was swept away. With no sign of the flood victim and his cries for help as their only guide, a jet boat was launched, operated by Garrett with Brown using a spotlight to search a tree line for the victim. Eventually locating the victim in a tree about 10 feet above the swift-moving floodwater, Corporal Garrett tactically maneuvered the boat through the turbulent water to the tree. Wet and hypothermic, the man slipped as he started to climb down. Unable to see him, Brown immediately dropped prone in the bow of the boat and reached both arms down in the roiling floodwater. He got hold of an arm and the man’s hair. The victim was devoid of strength and being pulled under by the current, but Brown got him into the boat and Garrett maneuvered it back to the safety of the shore. Corporal Brown and Trooper Garrett worked as a team using skill, decisiveness and bravery to overcome perilous circumstances and save the flood victim’s life.
Jason M. Hurt, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Nov. 21, 2015, Trooper Hurt was off-duty and traveling in his personal vehicle in Monroe County. It was cold and had recently snowed, but Trooper Hurt noticed a barefoot woman on the side of the road. Hurt stopped and the woman stated her intoxicated boyfriend was attempting suicide in a nearby cabin and a neighbor was with him. Hurt responded to the cabin and found two men struggling over a rifle. He drew his handgun, entered the cabin, identified himself as a trooper and told the men to put down the rifle. The men continued to fight over the gun. With one man’s finger on the trigger and the rifle pointed toward the ceiling, Hurt holstered his weapon and attempted to seize the gun. A shot was fired into the ceiling but Hurt gained full control of the weapon, and ended the disturbance. The suicidal man was transported for a psychiatric evaluation. While off-duty, Trooper Hurt first came to the aid of a civilian in need of assistance, which led to him placing himself in harm’s way by entering a highly dangerous struggle over a loaded gun. His selfless and brave action ended the threat to both the suicidal man and the civilian.
David L. Marshak and Bryan R. Taylor, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Sept. 10, 2015, Captain Marshak and Corporal Taylor were in a patrol vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 141 when they observed a burning van on the highway shoulder. The vehicle had extensive damage due to a multi-vehicle collision and flames were shooting out of the car. Thick smoke made it impossible to see if anyone was inside the passenger compartment. Marshak used his baton to break the passenger window and then unlocked the door. He discharged a fire extinguisher, but it had virtually no effect. The fire was spreading, thick smoke continued to billow inside the passenger compartment, and leaking fuel under the vehicle was also burning. Taylor called out to the driver but there was no response, and the driver door would not open. Fighting the thick smoke, Taylor entered the cab through the passenger door and tried to extricate the driver. However, his seat belt would not release and the noxious smoke forced Taylor to leave the vehicle. Marshak then entered the van and continued the effort to remove the driver. Now conscious but disoriented, the 85-year-old man began resisting efforts to get him out. Fighting through the smoke, Marshak, assisted by a motorist, was able to dislodge the driver and pull him out of the burning vehicle to safety. Both Captain Marshak and Corporal Taylor were treated for smoke inhalation, and Marshak also received additional medical treatment for abrasions. Together, their efforts saved the elderly driver’s life.
Charles L. Gerhart, Missouri Capitol Police
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On July 30, 2015, Officer Gerhart was off-duty and traveling with his family westbound on I-70 to Kansas City. Near Blue Springs, Gerhart observed a pickup truck in the eastbound lanes traveling at a high rate of speed crash into a vehicle that was stopped in construction traffic. The pickup then burst into flames. Gerhart stopped on the shoulder, left his family in his vehicle, ran across westbound traffic, jumped the median barriers, and quickly reached the burning vehicle. The driver had a broken pelvis, broken hip, multiple broken ribs and vertebrae and was trapped in the cab.