3 deputies honored for rescuing shooting victim
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8557019
KENT CITY, Mich. (WOOD) -- Three Kent County sheriff's deputies have been recognized for their bravery during a domestic situation at a home.
Authorities were dispatched Tuesday night to a home in the 13000 block of 19 Mile Road NE in Spencer Township. That is where Tracy Larson, 41, laid in critical condition on the living room floor after being shot by her boyfriend.
Three of the deputies on the scene had to make a split-second decision - whether to wait for backup or go into the home and rescue her. They chose the latter, while not knowing if the man who shot her was still inside.
"She couldn't even crawl out, so it was evident that she was hurt badly enough that someone needed to go in and get her out. There was nobody else. That's our job. That's what we do out here. So we went in and got her," Deputy Mario Morey told 24 Hour News 8.
"It was tough 'cause we didn't know if he [the shooter] was going to wait and ambush us when we went inside the door or what his thought process was," added Deputy Michael Hopkins.
The deputies, who have worked together so well for so long, say they didn't even have to discuss the decision. Two of them went inside the home to carry Larson out, while the third stayed outside to watch their backs in case the gunman fired again.
"It gets you worked up. It definitely gets you scared, but you just rely on your training, and do the best you can with it, and hope everything works out in the end," said Deputy Christopher Hawley.
This time for the deputies, it did. After carrying Larson to a patrol car and driving her to a waiting ambulance, they later learned the gunman - Larson's boyfriend, 50-year-old Joseph Simones - had killed himself in a back bedroom before police arrived.
Risking their lives to rescue the woman when they didn't know the location of the shooter is a different tactic than police have used in the past. Authorities told 24 Hour News 8 that law enforcement as a whole has changed its thinking and the training after the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999. Now, instead of setting up a perimeter and waiting for a S.W.A.T team, they may go in to rescue a victim as they have their own guns and bulletproof vests.
The focus for the deputies in the Spencer Township incident was to get the victim help. Every situation is different but that is the choice they made
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