The Odessa Police Department had 11 officers recently receive a special award for their work on duty.
They are:
>> Life Saving award of 2020: Officer Jimmie Rainey, Cpl. John Chavez, Cpl. Nicholas Moore, Sgt. Vijitta Y and Cpl. Luis Villalpando.
>> Life Saving award of 2021: Cpl. Thomas Rallo, Officer Gabriela Carrasco and Cpl. James Kiper.
>> Police Commendation award of 2020: Sgt. Ian Kapets.
>> Police Shield and Certificate of Merit Bar of 2020: Cpl. Steve LeSueur and Cpl. Taylor Box.
Their full story is as follows:
OFFICER JIMMIE RAINEY
Officer Jimmie Rainey handcuffed and placed a suspect in the backseat of his patrol unit on Jan. 5, 2020. During the investigation, the suspect appeared to have difficulty breathing, and Rainey asked the suspect if he had taken anything; the suspect responded that he took four blue pills but did not know what they were. Then he noticed the suspect slouched over in the backseat, and Rainey immediately administered Narcan and began CPR while requesting medics to run code to his location. Odessa Fire and Rescue arrived and transported his suspect to the hospital. The suspect made a full recovery.
CPL. JOHN CHAVEZ
On May 24, 2020, officers received a call of a man down, and that CPR was in progress. Cpl. John Chavez arrived first and located Robert Peterson lying unresponsive near the front porch, and Chavez noticed his face was purple. Chavez asked two men standing next to the victim how long he had been down. They told him for about 10 minutes. Chavez checked for a pulse and found none, and Peterson was not breathing. Chavez started chest compressions, and Peterson gasped for air. Chavez continued compressions until Odessa Fire and Rescue arrived and took him to the hospital. Peterson made a full recovery.
OFFICER NICHOLAS MOORE & CPL. VIJITTA Y
On July 9, 2020, Officer Nicholas Moore and Cpl. Vijitta Y, while responding to shots fired call, heard dispatch radio a medical call that a baby was not breathing. Both experienced officers weighed the risk and decided to answer the medical call, considering that time was essential, and the exact location was not precise. After arriving at the apartment complex, they announced police and their intent on finding the correct apartment. Moore saw an apartment on the south end. He pointed it out to Cpl. Y, who knocked on the door and found it was the correct apartment. After quickly gathering vital information regarding time, Moore and Y took immediate action and decided to transport the baby and meet Odessa Fire and Rescue medics that were in route. The officers’ sound judgment, decision-making skills, and the ability to act without hesitation in a high-stress environment saved the life of a 10-day old infant.
OFFICER LUIS VILLALPANDO
Officer Luis Villalpando volunteered to take a medical call on Aug. 11, 2020 because he was closer. He drove code three, overcame the poorly marked residential addresses, and searched the general area, where he noticed a door to a resident cracked open. Seeing this, Villalpando knocked on the door and announced his presence, and he heard, “she’s over here.” He ran into the room and observed a man performing chest compressions on a woman. Villalpando immediately took charge of the scene and performed CPR for approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds until the medics arrived. She was transported to the hospital and later placed in ICU.
CPL. JAMES KIPER, OFFICER GABRIELA CARRASCO & OFFICER THOMAS RALLO
Cpl. James Kiper, Officer Gabriela Carrasco, and Officer Thomas Rallo responded on Feb. 11, 2021 to a hanging. Once they arrived, they heard a woman screaming for help inside a 7-foot-high chain-link enclosure. Officers saw a man hanging from a cable in the carport while a woman held him up. The officers swiftly located a ladder climbed up the fence and jumped over. Once inside the enclosure, officers continued to operate as a team, with Carrasco and Rallo lifting him high enough for Kiper to unbolt the cable around the man’s neck. Once the man was on the ground, officers evaluated him and found no pulse. Rallo began CPR until Odessa Fire and Rescue Medics arrived, took over, and transported him by ambulance to the Medical Center Hospital emergency room breathing but in critical condition.
CPL. IAN KAPETS
Cpl. Ian Kapets was assigned a significant project at the beginning of 2019 of developing a new program called SmartForce. The program is a data management tool, an executive function tool, a scheduling and inventory program, and a repository of intelligence information. His actions, efforts, and research to leverage and increase the SmartForce program’s capabilities surpassed the project’s original goal by raising the power and capabilities of the program. The SmartForce designers were impressed by his work, and the enhancements he helped create put the Odessa Police Department at the forefront of technology for organized law enforcement, which would not have been possible without Kapets’ attention to detail, foreword thinking, persistence, and drive for success.
CPL. TAYLOR BOX & CPL. STEVE LESUEUR
On April 1, 2020, A man frantically flagged down Cpls. Taylor Box and Steve LeSueur, patrolling the area. Officers exited their vehicle to provide aid and quickly learned that aggressive bees had attacked the victims. During the investigation, the situation worsened and became chaotic as the bees swarmed and attacked everyone and heavily covered LeSueur, and he was in serious trouble and needed medical treatment after being stung several dozen times. Box quickly assessed the situation, took charge, and told everyone to take refuge in the patrol unit. The officers and two victims ran to the police unit and shut the door to escape the swarm, but many bees followed them into the vehicle. The four occupants continued to kill bees in the police unit as the bees continued to attack. CBox decided there was no time to wait for medics and no need to expose them to the bee swarm and drove the victims to the hospital. The doctor at the Emergency Room told LeSueur that his condition was serious, and the doctor said to him that he was “lucky” because other patients he had treated with a similar number of bee stings had died.
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