command of the officer who could have confused her with another suspect, the officers continued their search in remembered someone else live in the rear cottage. they quickly moved to the backyard area. chorizos a movement behind the tree. -- doorherty saw a movement behind a tree and called for the suspects to come out with his hands up. he was taken into custody with the murder victims property and a large amount of money. the officers should always be quick without hesitation and appropriate. during an officer's career, there are times when they will be placed in a position where they have to decide whether to put their safety or the safety of others before their own. there are times when they're called upon to deal with a situation where there is a great likelihood an officer could be

seriously injured or killed when no one would blame them for waiting. this was such a moment for the officers involved. in this instance, the efforts of all the officers involved showed great courage, a great decision making, and dedication be on the call of duty. the officers constantly respond to calls for shootings and know the potential risk they may encounter every time. these officers knew immediate action was required to save lives. they did not hesitate in putting themselves in harm's way to save lives, to render aid, and take suspects into custody. for this, they are being honored with the bronze medal of valor. [applause]

>> the next medal of valor will be presented by deputy chief kevin cashman. >> good evening.

on september 26, 2010, dispatch received the complaint of a male blasting music at 1000 sutter st.. the residential hotel with narrow hallways and then walls is well known to officers as they respond there almost daily. this busy sunday morning stretched staffing to its limits. officers were sent to the fair and a critical incident in the northern district. the officer responded to a call at 11:17 a.m. and climbed seven flights of stairs to room 708. she approached the room with the manager who unlocked the door after numerous attempts to get the occupant to do so. she entered the studio apartment and saw the suspect line on the bed to the left of the door. his arms were behind his head. she saw the wooden handle of a gun on the floor was littered

with clothing and garbage. she approached the bed with her gun drawn. she picked up his weapon and back away from the suspect. she backed approximately 10 feet while never taking her eyes off of the suspect. fearing a physical confrontation, she placed the unloaded large caliber revolvers with a 9 inch barrel on a chair behind her while keeping her eyes on the suspect. the suspect jumped up from the bed and screamed that he was part of the secret service, part of the cia. he repeatedly stated that she was going to shoot her -- him today. he ignored her verbal commands to get down on the floor. the officer called for a code three backup unit and attempted to calm the suspect. she instructed the manager outside the apartment door to go to the stairs and direct the arriving officers to her location. she continued to give the suspects verbal commands and assurances while keeping her

body between him and the gun on a chair behind her. he then complied with her command to get on the floor by kneeling but he instantly leaped up and approached hurt by a few more feet. he was then adjacent to the door. looking straight into her eyes, he reached over and slammed the apartment door. he turned a double. he said, now is just you and me. knowing her life depended on getting the door open, she reacted by stepping to left and began unlocking the door. as she stepped left, the suspect maneuver around the right side of the officer and got his gun off of the chair. she turned and faced the suspect with the gun drawn. she was only a few feet away facing him with his gun pointed slightly up in the air. she ordered him to put the gun down. holding a steady with both hands, he pointed the gun directly at her. faced with no other alternative but to use deadly force, the

officer began firing her department-issued fire arm. she continued to fire but he did not drop the gun. the suspect spun around as he fell and landed on his back. his head was towards her feet with the gun still in his hands. he brought his arms over his head so begun would be pointed at her again. she prepared to shoot him again when the backup officer into the room. that officer saw the injured suspect on the floor with the weapons still in his hands and his bigger still on the trigger, still posing a threat. at officer pointed his department rifle at the suspect and told him to let go of the weapon. at this time, sergeant hernandez entered the room and observe the suspect lower the weapon to his waist, raise his arm back up to the weapon. the officer provided cover while sgt hernandez retreat -- retrieved the weapon. with the assistance of officers,

performed cpr until the fire department arrived. despite efforts to save the suspect's life, the suspect succumbed to his wounds and died at the scene. in conclusion, the officer exhibited outstanding bravery above and beyond that expected in the line of duty. for her heroic actions on the morning of september 26, the officer is awarded the silver medal of valor. [applause]

>> since we have the award screening committee in august, we have already received nine more nomination for metals of dollars for members of the department. we will have another one of these ceremonies in the spring to be honoring those folks, too,

hopefully. the police department would also like to thank the university of san francisco and their support for cosponsoring this. we want to thank everyone who helped to put this event together this evening. we also wanted a woman putting the awards forward. she coordinated the event. we want to thank her for her work on this. this concludes our ceremony this evening. the photographer has asked if the medal recipient would come back for one more photograph with the chief. then we will release you to your families who are anxious to congratulate you. thank you very much. [applause] >> if any members of the families or commanding officers want to come up, you are welcome.

please. it is important. >> is this working? all right. let me start by thanking everyone for coming out today. as everyone knows, there are several city agencies, several community groups, and i will get to the city family and leadership who is out here today. every chinese new year, all the departments all get together, and we all work very hard in making sure that the chinatown area is clean, free from

graffiti. that the merchants are allocated -- educated about our ordinances. this year, we're going to do something special and a little bit different. we have been working with the merchants association, the chinese chamber of commerce and many associations here to come up with a great idea to make walking much easier but also to make buying merchandise and enjoying chinatown much easier. hopefully also allowing the bus to run smoothly while these activities are going on. without further delay, i would like to introduce our mayor, who is no stranger to chinatown and who is really spearheading this idea. thank you. [applause] mayor lee: let's see if everybody can occupy the parking space. exactly what we want to do is make sure people use the sidewalks as much as possible.

first of all, how the new year, everyone. i know that as we celebrate the traditional new year, as soon as i finish with one new year, i get ready for the next year, because chinese new year is also a huge celebration not over chat -- not only over chinatown, but all over the city. the city really makes a lot of money with a lot of tourists that come in. the department of public works has already started -- you are already cleaning up the big gate down there and the graffiti. one of the things that is part of the tradition -- and it is already happening in my own house -- as i have to clean up my hard, clean my kitchen, my bedroom, my living room before

chinese new year comes. that is the same thing with literally every chinese family, every chinese-owned business, but also beyond that, i think this culture is spreading that a lot of non-asian families are doing the same thing. whether it is our friends at north beach or people here in chinatown. in talking with the merchants all over china town, chinese chamber, the stockton street merchants, the chinatown merchants association -- we wanted to capture a little bit more improvement this year on pedestrian safety. there was an idea that was created and talked about for several weeks where it began by a few years ago when i was public works director, that we expanded some of the sidewalks for the benefit of pedestrian safety. we worked very closely with the traffic division of mta. we worked with our health

department. we worked with chinatown neighborhood groups and the businesses to expand those sidewalks, and it has actually become quite a positive thing. then, we had sunday streets this past year in the summer where we literally took over grant ave. that became a very positive thing. in fact, we started the first ping-pong tournament in chinatown as a result. more and more, there has been an interest that more of the sidewalks and potentially maybe even a strip of the parking area be taken over with more pedestrian and shared with merchants in the area, so we began this collaboration through the mayor's office with the collaboration of all of the chinatown merchants groups, the chamber of commerce, the merchants association. the stockton street merchants in particular, who are standing behind me. as well as the family

association. then, certainly with supervisor david chiu and his staff, in thinking what we could do to enhance the time when it is most busy. we determined with the participation of our police department, our health department, our traffic division, and all the other agencies associated with our city administrator's office. the acting administrator is here to for dissipate as well. the 10 days before chinese new year is really the most impactual. we have a lot of families here not only eating, but buying the kinds of things that they need to do to get ready. in collaboration with all the agencies, and in particular our public safety agencies, we felt we wanted to try something out. what we have determined is that

from sacramento street through to broadway, and i believe there's a couple of blocks on broadway as well -- on a grant as well that we also determined were very impacted. that we would take an opportunity to announce and develop a pilot program where the parking spaces would then be occupied by a shared use of both pedestrians and merchants, and to see if we could do that in a safe way that we would allow ourselves to enhance it. quite candidly in my observation that i know is shared by some or others -- if we did not occupy it with that, it would be occupied by cars and a lot of delivery trucks all day long and maybe all night long. instead, to maybe enhance this. we decided that we would enhance the ability to have pedestrians years that more and to have the merchants use that more, bring

out more of the merchandise that will be sold their and still have the sidewalks to welcome in families. to have a safe pathway for all of them and keep everybody within the safety zone. we are going to do that as a pilot program this year. again, i really want to thank everybody working together because it is all the neighborhood agencies working under the leadership of public works, working with our police department and their foot patrols are out here, and they see what happens every day. we do not want anybody to get into the streets at all. right, commander and captain? it is their safety that is really the preeminent thing that we want to do. while we try to enhance the family experience in chinatown and welcome in a little bit more business and have that positive experience. it works or it we need to tweak

it, we will do more of the. we will work with everybody to enhance it. i think this is worth trying. i think it is time we do this, and it will begin this saturday. i think it is a welcoming thing for everybody that will increase the participation and i think increase the businesses. while the tourist business has increased this last year in the city, certain pockets of our city have not experienced as much as other pockets of the city. so this is yet another way we can do it. i know north beach has some special needs. we can pay attention to that in the very near future. there are other pockets, but this is part of what i wanted e merchant quarters, hear what they had to say, respond in a positive way and experience and experiment with ideas that

innovate with our emergence to try to enhance their ability to make a little bit more, and also help with the cultural scene. this year is the year of the dragon. eat you know anything about the dragon, you know that the dragon is kind of like the big leader of all of the zodiac animals. they are fearless. they have the big dragon breath. you know, the fire breath. they are not fearful of hast things. they want to just flows through some new ideas, and i think that is what we wanted to boldly this year, kind of use the spirit of the dragon to say, cassette and let's do some new ideas. let's be bold about it." let's do something that enhances the cultural theme of chinatown as well. we decided to do this. we believe we have the support of all of the residents. there preeminent thing was that pedestrian safety be the number one thing, so we have done that. we have reflected in it.

i want to thank this very balanced approach that vw has had with everybody's cooperation. all of the inspectors would be here. we will have some additional monitors to make sure that the safety is preeminent, but at the same time, to gauge the participation of everybody. i do believe what everybody's help, this will be a positive thing. particularly, i want to thank the merchants. they were bold enough to say, "let's try something a little different. supervisor is responsible for what happens in this district, so we engaged him early. i want to thank him for helping to support this but also helping to lead it as well. we will be working closely with him as he gives feedback on the experience. supervisor chiu: thank you, mr. mayor. happy new year. have a chinese new year two weeks ahead of time.

one of the most amazing aspect of, i think, one of the most special holidays that we celebrate in san francisco is the chinese new year rally brings books together. i want to thank everyone who is part of making this great announcement possible. our city agencies who are here, the mta, our san francisco police department, dpw, our city administrator. also, i have to thank our mayor. he first spoke to me about this in, i think, our first meeting right after the election. we both wanted to move forward on ideas that would help revitalize not just our merchant corridors and job creation, but make sure that chinatown remains the very special capital of the chinese-american community that it is. i think the announcement is also very special because we're talking about how we use our streets in a way that bill communities. san francisco in recent years has been on the forefront of taking back our streets for our families, our children, our seniors. just like sunday streets, i

think what we are experimenting with with this pilot project will be in that direction. we are also talking about making the chinese new year experienced more authentic. more what we expect chinese new year's to be celebrated throughout the world. i want to thank everyone here from the chinese merchant associations, attorneys chambers, our family associations, our non-profit associations. this is what san francisco should be about, coming together to celebrate san francisco. again, congratulations. happy new year. [applause] >> as you heard the mayor and supervisor chiu say, it is always coming together. one of the key partners in making sure the project is successful is sfmta. i will have them come and give you a few tips on what to look for. [laughter]

>> on behalf of all my colleagues at the sfmta we are pleased to be partnering with all the other city agencies as well as the community to bring forth this pilot. in addition to enhancing the pedestrian experience, we have done quite a bit on stockton street, including the pedestrian scramble signals recently. in addition to enhancing the experience through this pilot, one of our primary goals is to make sure that the traffic and transit continue to operate satisfactorily throughout this corridor. for that to happen, we will need everyone's cooperation. i think the best tool is compliance and cooperation. i am sure that will be the case. i am really looking forward to this pilot being impactful, the official, and ultimately

successful. thank you. [applause] >> another partner to make sure that while you are shopping at tsa is -- that while you're shopping you are safe is the finest police department. >> i had not prepared to come up, but i can tell you we're just delighted at the notion of wider sidewalks. it is good for fitness and good for safety. the captain and i walked up here, and i moved one double parked car along the way and let the bus through the intersection, at a said we should take the bus up, and we realized it was faster to walk. one thing we did also was we cut into the street a lot because of all the credit sidewalks. wider sidewalks are good, and we are most happy working with the issue of deliveries early and late, so not during the day. this is going to be good for traffic, good for business, and good for pedestrians. the richmond station where i was

several years ago -- i thought something like this, and i was told everywhere was too complicated, forget about it. so i commend you guys. i am sort speechless, and that does not happen to me often. [applause] >> as the mayor said, this idea was being worked on over the last few weeks, and it took quite a number of meetings. it took quite a bit of organizing. some agreements were being made. exactly how this was going to work. one of the neighborhood groups we worked with, so we will have them say a few words. >> i am the presiding president of chinese consolidated delivery

association, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of chinatown labour association and merchants on stockton street, we want to thank you. mayor lee, president of the board of supervisors, david chiu, dtw director, director, and commissioner, for all the support for making the chinese traditional sidewalk merchandise displayed a pilot program, a reality nine days before the chinese new year. starting from january 14 to january 22, from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.. we all know that the sidewalk is only 9.5 feet wide.

it would be too congested for pedestrians to walk through the area, therefore, we elected mayor lee to use the parking space to display the merchandise in the parking area so that pedestrians would be able to walk through the sidewalk area. we are happy to report to you all that mayor lee accepted the stockton street merchants request. i have been saying for mandates to all my friends for many times that the people of san francisco are so lucky to be let ed lee as our mayor because he is not a politician but a public servant. he has served the people of san francisco for 22 years in five different city departments under four mayors. he understands the chinese community problems and is ready

to offer his assistance. this pilot program is one of the examples. we are proud and honored to be one of the supporters of this program and to sponsor this pilot program has per midi and agent for stockton street merchants. again, thank you very much there, and all your supporters. thank you. >> thanks so much, everyone. first of all, this is the year of the dragon. i am sorry that i almost forgot. but can you imagine what is going to happen during the year of 2012? we have a historic mayor