Oak Creek (Wis.) Police Officer Savan "Sam" Lenda will be honored as the 2013 winner of the Chudwin Award for Patrol Rifle Excellence for his role in ending the Sikh Temple shooting.
Officer Lenda will be honored at the National Patrol Rifle Conference and Competition in Detroit from June 2-4. The event is put on by Center Mass Inc.
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.