It began like any other Thursday morning for the property manager and the two maintenance workers, but by 9 a.m. it had pitched into a surreal, bloody scene. The maintenance men found themselves prying a knife-wielding assailant off a police officer, the property manager with her fingers pressed to the officer's throat, trying to stop the blood.

On Tuesday, Hartford Police Chief David Rosado credited the three employees — Jacqueline Marciano, Marvin Dixon and Jose Casanova — with saving officer Jill Kidik’s life after she was stabbed in the throat while responding to a landlord-tenant dispute May 17, the Hartford Courant reports. Rosado presented Marciano, Dixon and Casanova with the department’s Distinguished Citizens Award, and Mayor Luke Bronin and the city council thanked the three, calling them heroes “who will always be remembered in the city of Hartford.”

Kidik was released from the hospital last week after several rounds of surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. But “without a shadow of a doubt,” Deputy Chief Joseph Buyak said, “had Ms. Marciano, Mr. Dixon and Mr. Casanova not taken the action they did, Officer Kidik would have died.”