President Biden on Wednesday awarded the Medal of Valor, the highest award the U.S. can bestow on a public safety officer, to six law enforcement officers for actions taken during 2021 and 2022, including posthumously to two NYPD officers shot and killed in the line of duty while responding to a 911 call.
The NYPD officers honored posthumously were Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera, who were fatally shot Jan. 21, 2022, while responding to a call about a family dispute in a Harlem apartment. A third officer at the scene, Sumit Sulan, shot and killed the gunman, ending the deadly encounter moments after it began.
Sulan also received the Medal of Valor Wednesday.
Other police recipients of the Medal of Valor were Cpl. Jeffrey Farmer, of the Littletown, Colorado, Police Department; Deputy Bobby Pham of the Clermont County Sheriff's Office in Ohio, and Sgt. Kendrick Simpo of the Houston Police Department, MSN reports.
Cpl. Farmer was responding to a call of shots fired and chased the suspect to the door of an apartment, where the man opened fire, hitting Farmer's partner. Farmer worked to fend off the shooter, then, realizing an ambulance was too far away, dragged his partner into his police car and drove him to the hospital himself, saving his life.
Deputy Pham saved a drowning woman who had driven her car into a lake, even though he could not swim.
Sgt. Simpo was working a second job at the Houston area Galleria mall when he heard on the radio a heavily armed man wearing a black mask was roaming the mall, near a group of children gathered for a dance competition. Simpo tackled the suspect, who was carrying an AR-style rifle, a handgun, and 120 rounds of ammunition. No one was injured.
