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Officers Awarded For Saving Lives, Surviving Standoffs, Seizing Drugs In Westchester

Several Westchester County police officers have received awards for showing extreme bravery and ingenuity, including one who saved a shooting victim's life with a potato chip bag and several who survived a standoff while being repeatedly fired at. 

Some of the officers awarded included Eric Peterman (top left), who saved a gunshot victim's life with a potato chip bag; and members of the department's Special Response Team (bottom right), who were shot at repeatedly in a violent standoff.

Some of the officers awarded included Eric Peterman (top left), who saved a gunshot victim's life with a potato chip bag; and members of the department's Special Response Team (bottom right), who were shot at repeatedly in a violent standoff.

 Photo Credit: Westchester County Police
Ben Crnic
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A total of 30 officers received their awards during the Westchester Department of Public Safety’s annual award ceremony held on Tuesday, June 20 at the Police Academy in Valhalla. 

The awards were presented by County Executive George Latimer, Deputy County Executive Kenneth Jenkins, and Acting Public Safety Commissioner Terrance Raynor.

Among those awarded included: 

  • Police Officer Eric Peterman, who received a Meritorious Service Medal for using a plastic potato chip bag to reduce blood loss from a shooting victim's chest wound at a Yonkers bodega on July 15, 2022. Peterman also saved the life of a woman who had been shot in her arm by applying a tourniquet to her wound. 
  • Several members of the department's Special Response Team received the Distinguished Service Medal & Combat Cross for braving an armed standoff in Cortlandt on Sept. 14, 2022. During the more than nine-hour incident, officers were repeatedly fired upon, and a ballistic shield used by the team shattered, injuring four officers. However, officers only used less-than-lethal weapons against the man, who later took his own life. The officers awarded were Lt. Paul Cusano, Lt. Michael Demaio, Sgt. Daniel Dumser, Sgt. David Minet, Sgt. Michael Ritell, Sgt. Jeffrey Slotoroff, Detective Jonathan Gould, Detective Marc Moskalik, Officer David Byrnes, Officer Michael Huffman, Officer Jason Payne, and Officer Brian Tierney. 
  • Several members of the department's Conditions and Surface Transportation Unit received a unit citation for assisting in ghost gun investigations, locating wanted suspects and stolen vehicles in the county, and helping federal agencies in investigations. Sgt. Brandon Amlung, Police Officer David DiRienzo, and Police Officer Jonathan Irwin were awarded for making a total of 159 arrests; for their seizing of $1.4 million in cash, 48 firearms, 80 pounds of heroin or fentanyl, 18 pounds of cocaine, 400 pounds of marijuana and 290 illegal prescription pills; and recovering 49 stolen or felony vehicles.
  • Police Officers Kirk Baker and Tyler Hinkley were awarded the Commendable Police Duty Medal for helping a woman who was hit by a train in Valhalla and had become trapped between the platform and the train under an electrified rail shoe. The officers were able to give aid to the woman and remove her from under the rail shoe despite the danger.  

Raynor commented on the skills needed by officers in such critical situations. 

"The work that you do is to protect all of us," he said during the ceremony, adding, "It is a calling. It is not just a job, it is not just a career. Most of us do not have the skill set to do what you do.”

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