Los Angeles Police Officer Danielle Lopez and her partner were driving to a South L.A. jail when they spotted a man in the middle of the street pointing a semi-automatic rifle at other cars.
The officers jumped out and drew their guns.
“Drop the gun!” Lopez remembers shouting at the man. “Drop the gun!”
It was a tense moment, a potentially life-or-death scenario that police train for but hope to avoid: one that could have ended in gunfire.
Instead, Lopez and her partner were able to persuade the man to drop the rifle and step away, arresting him without firing a single bullet. After taking him into custody, the officers realized that the gun he was carrying was, in fact, a fake.
On Thursday, Lopez and Officer Bryan Waggener were recognized for their judgment and restraint, joining a group of 25 officers who became the LAPD’s first recipients of a new award: the Preservation of Life medal, the Los Angeles Times reports.
