Heroic Actions

Kenneth McDonald
HPD
His wife’s emergency call shattered the security screener’s day, wrote James Marchand, deputy federal security director. She had tried to commit suicide.

The screener ran from the terminal, saw Officer Kenneth McDonald, and urgently requested a ride home, Marchand wrote. McDonald drove him home. The man’s wife was near death.

McDonald started life-saving techniques. He didn’t stop until the paramedics arrived. “His timely, compassionate act likely saved the woman’s life,” Marchand wrote. Her physician said that without McDonald and the paramedics’ medical attention, she would have bled to death.

S.J. Ellis
HPD
Burdie Mosley was on her way to jail. The arresting officer, S.J. Ellis, looked at her in his rearview window and said, “Lady, no matter how angry you are, I’m taking you to jail, because you need some help. You can’t see it, but I do,” Mosley wrote.

“I told him that I hoped he got killed on duty today.”

Mosley’s statement haunted her through a relapse and more jail time. But Ellis’ concerned words and look never left her mind.

“Today, I’m drug free, and I have apologized to Officer Ellis, who has no idea that he saved my life,” she wrote.