On Aug. 5, 2012, Officer Lenda arrived at the Sike Temple of Wisconsin to find his collegue Lt. Brian Murphy critically wounded by white supremacist Wade Michael Page, who had entered a Sikh temple and shot multiple people.
Page began firing on Officer Lenda's patrol car, forcing the officer to withdrawl to about 75 yards from the shooter. Officer Lenda located, positively identified, and engaged Page with his patrol rifle, killing him and ending the threat. The encounter was captured by Officer Lenda's
dashboard camera
.
The award is named for Jeff Chudwin, the police chief for the village of Olympia Fields, Ill. Chudwin has been a firearms, use-of-force and emergency response trainer for more than 25 years.