UC Davis police
officers who dealt with an on-campus shooting last December received medals
of valor at the police department's city and employment appreciation award ceremony
held in late January. UC Davis campus honors bravery
By ALDRICH TAN/Democrat Correspondent
February 5, 2006
UC Davis police
officers who dealt with an on-campus shooting last December received medals
of valor at the police department's city and employment appreciation award ceremony
held in late January.
UC Davis patrol captain Leslie Brown honored dispatchers Jeff Rott and Tamar Rein, Sgt. Barry Swartwood, officer Ruben Arias, and Lt. Nader Oweis at the Buehler Alumni Center on campus.
Rott and Rein received Distinguished Service Commendations. Oweis and Arias received Distinguished Service Medals. Swartwood received the Medal of Valor, the UC police system's highest award.
"We're just doing our jobs," Oweis said.
Rott and Rein responded to calls from students reporting a suspicious person acting strangely near student housing, Brown said. Swartwood, Arias and Oweis arrived on the scene. The man pulled out a handgun and started to fire at all the officers. The officers fired back, fatally wounding the suspect to protect themselves and the campus community.
Swartwood's Medal of Valor honors an employee who performs a hazardous act at the risk of their own life when exposed to peril above and beyond the call of duty, Oweis said.
"We don't give the award out too often," he said. "It's an award for special occasions."
The officers involved in the shooting were not the sole award recipients that afternoon. Cathy Jo Deusenberry was Dispatcher of the Year. Purchasing assistant Jennifer Contreras was Employee of the Year. Sgt. Swartwood was also Officer of the Year. Rebecca Nord, Marilyn Winston, Patricia Harvey, and Nancy Lewis received Citizenship Appreciation awards.
Nord, an organizational development consultant, helped the department develop competency interview criteria for the sergeant and lieutenant promotional processes. Winston, a medical assistant at the UC Davis Medical Center, intervened in a child abuse situation last January. Harvey and Lewis came to the aid of a woman having a heart attack at the UC Davis Medical Center last March.
The department also distributed several life-saving awards. Swimming coach Pete Motekaitis saved a drowning student at Hickey Pool. Greg Hoeger, assistant fire marshall with the UC Davis Fire Department, rescued a choking woman at a Berkeley restaurant last November. Sgt. Javier Barragan responded to the Harvey and Lewis' call at the UC Davis Medical Center in March. Sgt. Jennifer Garcia rescued a man from attempting suicide last December.
About 150 people attended the event, said Faith Maul, executive assistant to the UC Davis police chief Annette Spicuzza
Attendees included Yolo County supervisor Mariko Yamada campus provost and executive vice chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, and Mike DiMiceli, assistant executive director of the California Commission of Police Officers Standards and Training.
"This is an affair that allows our department to honor and celebrate our citizens and officers for outstanding service to our community over the past year," Spicuzza said. "We are very proud of all of our award recipients."
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