Bulletin Notes
Law enforcement officers are challenged daily in the performance of their duties; they face each challenge freely and unselfishly while answering the call to duty. In certain instances, their actions warrant special attention from their respective departments. The Bulletin also wants to recognize those situations that transcend the normal rigors of the law enforcement profession.
Deputies Travis Sturgill and Marc Vieth of the Hall County, Nebraska, Sheriff’s Office were transporting a prisoner and observed a van ahead of them go into the median and spin to a halt. Deputies Sturgill and Vieth stopped to render assistance. While Deputy Vieth remained with the prisoner, Deputy Sturgill approached the van and observed two men fighting in the front. Upon opening the right-side door, he discovered that the passenger was a prisoner who had taken the transporting officer’s handgun. While the officer was struggling to regain control of the firearm, the prisoner had it pointed at his own head. Immediately, Deputy Sturgill entered the vehicle, secured the handgun, and assisted the officer in regaining control of the prisoner, who was transported to a hospital on an emergency mental health hold.
Deputy Sturgill
Deputy Vieth
Officer Daniel
Officer Moss
Senior Police Officers Harrison Daniel and James Moss of the Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, Department of Police Services responded to an accident in which a vehicle struck a tree and caught fire with two occupants trapped inside. The passenger did not survive. Quickly, the officers began working to free the driver, who was trapped with his legs on fire. As Officers Daniel and Moss worked furiously to free him, the driver said, “It’s my time to go.” However, the officers insisted that they would not give up. They calmed the victim as they continued to fight the fire and stop it from spreading, sustaining injuries in the process, even as it showed signs of exploding. Eventually, the fire department arrived and helped extinguish the fire and release the driver.
Nominations for the Bulletin Notes should be based on either the rescue of one or more citizens or arrest(s) made at unusual risk to an officer’s safety. Submissions should include a short write-up (maximum of 250 words), a separate photograph of each nominee, and a letter from the department’s ranking officer endorsing the nomination. Submissions should be sent to the Editor, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, FBI Academy, Quantico, VA 22135.