Illinois
O’Fallon, Illinois police officers honored after saving man from burning building
O’FALLON, Il. (First Alert 4) – Four O’Fallon, Illinois police officers were honored at a city council meeting Monday night after they saved a disabled man from a burning building.
Sgt. Matt Plassman, Ptl. Chad Finnan, Ptl. Kenneth Morris, and Ptl. Michael Shewmaker were awarded the Meritorious Conduct Award for their acts of courage on March 25, when they entered a duplex that was on fire to carry a man out.
“The only thought process was that they are coming out,” Ptl. Finnan said. “Not how are we going to get them out. It’s they’re coming out. We’re getting them out.”
Patrolmen Finnan and Morris were first on the scene that night, shattering the glass door with a fire extinguisher to enter the home.
Two men were inside. One man was able to walk out, whereas his dad was in the bedroom.
“I mean seconds are minutes,” Ptl. Morris said.
As they searched for the paraplegic man, Ptl. Morris’ other training kicked in. As a volunteer firefighter, he knew how to stay as safe as he could, even without the proper gear.
“I did say to myself, ‘we need to stay down,” Ptl. Morris said. “We need to stay lower where there is fresher air so we’re not breathing in the smoke. Processing what gear I did have on at that point, I realized I didn’t have the airway protection. I didn’t have the heat protection so I knew we had to work quickly to get out of that residence before it deteriorated faster.”
“We put safety at the forefront of everything we do and every contact we have with the public,” Ptl. Finnan said.
While the award from the city council is meaningful, the officers said what they did is also what’s expected of them.
“We interact with people oftentimes on the worst days of their life and that’s a normal day for us,” Ptl. Finnan said. “It’s fantastic to be recognized for some of the stuff we do but this is stuff we do every day.”
Copyright 2024 KMOV. All rights reserved.
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Illinois
Illinois man’s Memorial Day weekend in Key West was derailed after he went bar hopping in a stolen police car
Imagine your unofficial start to summer taking place in Key West, Florida. You’ve made the trip for the Memorial Day weekend from suburban Chicago, and you’ve got plans to enjoy some of the local establishments.
You have an evening of drinks planned on Saturday when all of a sudden those plans get derailed. Bar hopping was likely on the agenda, but there’s no chance doing so in a stolen police car was ever mentioned.
According to the Key West Police Department, John Mack, 38, of La Grange, Illinois, hopped into and took a patrol car from an officer working off-duty at Dante’s Key West Pool Bar & Restaurant.
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Local 10 reports that the KWPD said Mack had been drinking inside the bar and restaurant before the incident, which surveillance video shows took place just before 6:20 p.m. Police say the footage shows him “walking out of the pool bar with two friends and standing a couple of feet away from the patrol vehicle.”
Mack then, allegedly, opened the door, got inside, and drove off, almost hitting two men. A security guard reportedly got the attention of the officer the patrol car belonged to and as other KWPD officers were responding to the bar, Mack drove the car around the parking lot.
An Illinois man was arrested in Key West after allegedly stealing a police car and taking it for a ride. (Getty)
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Police say they later found him nearby outside of the Boat House Bar & Grill. He had successfully, it would appear, drunkenly bar hopped in the stolen police car. While he claimed to have had only three to six Coronas, according to police, he failed the field sobriety test.
They then allege he resisted arrest, which caused him to sustain cuts from a fence. He refused a breathalyzer and wasn’t in possession of a valid driver’s license at the time of his arrest. He only had an Illinois ID card on him.
A Memorial Day Weekend trip to Key West for an Illinois man included an arrest after he allegedly stole a patrol car. (Getty)
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Mack, who is obviously innocent until proven guilty, was arrested on charges of DUI, burglary, grand theft, grand theft of law enforcement equipment, reckless driving, refusal to submit to DUI testing and resisting arrest without violence.
That is a full Memorial Day weekend no matter how you look at it.
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