that san francisco department doing? it's not just them, look to yourselves because those values began with all of you. family and friends and those who love our officers. and thank you for being here today. it's my privilege to preside over the process to select these officers. and i look forward to the presentations by each of the captains. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, vice president turman and thank you president mazzucco. i understand that the mayor is on a tight schedule. i would like the mayor to come up and say a few words, please. thank you. >> thank you officer monroe. good evening everyone, this is a really happy occasion. and i did when chief suhr

notified me that this would be happening, i wanted to make sure that i put time in to come before you for a brief moment. and to share my appreciation to the police force. to commissioners, the president mazzucco, and to the entire commission, to chief suhr and the entire command staff. to the awardees tonight. i know there is 41 of you out there with family and friends. but i want to say this to the entire 2,000 sworn men and women in san francisco police force. i am very proud of you. as hard as i work, i know there are people that work even harder than i, and i don't necessarily put my life on the line every single day i go out there. but for a world-class city to have this status is one of the best cities to ever live in.

to work in and to visit. you got to have a police force that rises to world-class standards. and the san francisco police department is in fact world-class standard. tonight with the recognition of the medals of valor, we continue, i think, a very important culture. a culture that is measured by the performance of its officers and those who tonight exceed that standard in every way. and you know it's kind of hard for me to get know everyone of 2,000 officers that work in our police department. i do see the results though. and i don't think we could have landed the bid for the super bowl hosting l without a world class police department. we could not have landed the

americus cup in san francisco without the best police department in the country. we could not have landed so many of these world-class events and continue the pride of being one of the faster recovering cities in all of our country without a good police force. so i made it a point tonight to come here and let you know that i may not know each of the officers allegiance to your favorite baseball team, your favorite football team or favorite basketball team. but i will before i am done. because i do know that we share in common the success of the city. i know that on a daily basis whether you are walking the neighborhoods of south of market or the tenderloin and bayview or any number of our neighborhoods. you are doing the best you can. you are looking out for people. and i want you to know that as the mayor of this city, we also

got your back covered as well. because we don't have each other's back covered, we don't have the trust that we need to move forward in this city. so i want to say thank you to each of the 2,000 men and women who serve in this police department. the commission. the commanding staff. the police officers association that works closely with all of us as well. and not only say thank you to all of you, but tonight for those who have earned the medal of valor. you know it's important to have these events. because the particular event that caused the bravery to occur, is no longer on the front pages of our newspapers. but they are in our memories. in the men and women, the people that you work alongside, your family and friends and commissioners, they know who they are. and the rest of the city, 26,000

people that work for this city, we also know who has put themselves on the line. to save others. to bring more efficiencies to the city. to bring pride and who you tutor, the kids, the extra time it takes to get at-risk youth to turn their head, and make a pause. and suggest a better life. the extra hours that the officers put in, all of you, i see that every day. and i know there is results. in fact if you look at the numbers today, knock on wood, we are still at the historic time of low homicides in the city, we want to keep it that way, we want to keep the success going. thank you from your mayor. i want you to know that i am a grateful mayor to this police force and all the people that serve it. and tonight i celebrate with you

the recipients for the medals of valor, to know that i appreciate the extra effort that its taken for you to get this award and recognition. i am proud of you. proud of you not only being officers and employees of the city. but proud of you being our city's heroes tonight. congratulations and thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. now i would like to introduce your chief of police, gregory p. suhr. >> good evening, i don't think it could be anymore appropriate tonight that we are here at the legend of honor. that's what this is about, honoring folks, that we literally hear a lot and put our lives on the line every day.

and in the instanceses of the stories you are about to hear, it did happen. the men and women that will be spoken about tonight. i can't even tell you how special and spectacular the duties that you performed and the way that you did this, impressive. it would be lame if that's a word i can say. i thought what i would do, i don't think that the sworn officers here know the process by which we got here tonight. so the process is rapid protracted. every day i get a folder full of what is called captain's complimentary letters. in those letters written by supervisors in the police department, there are bank robbers arrested. and guns taken. and gang members identified. and on and on, if you read these things, you would think, my god,

everything that is mentioned in these captain complimentary letters surely they will get an award. and they do, they get captain complimentary letters, and that's what we do. when someone does something over and above, as the case for everyone here. the commanding officer will write that officer up for a consideration for medal of valor. that goes to a three-captain committee that vets many recommendations. some of those move back to captain complimentary letters because they don't make the thre threshold of a letter. and many result in a police commission complementary. and i want to thank the commission, and the mayor, if you think you have a busy schedule, it doesn't compare to

his. i assure you. and the police of honor and these awards is not on the way to anything. he came here for you, and he is our mayor. and back to the story. these three captains then will make recommendations and come back and forth and certified before the medal of valor committee. the medal of valor committee is by rule and commission only the captains of the police department and the command staff. that's it. so low 40 something people max, and to get a medal you have to achieve a two-thirds vote. and to get the two-thirds we do that with marbles. i am not kidding. we have a box over 100 years old that dates back to the turn of the century. and inspector monroe is demoted

back to officer and he's the mayor, we will fix that. and this box is passed around after the presentation of the captain, and then vote. you need to get two-thirds of a marble of a certain color to achieve a medal. if you do not get two-thirds that is somewhere around 28 votes. it diverts down until you get to the medal that is appropriate. so i know tonight we don't have a gold medal. gold medals are rare. they are really rare. i have been on the medal committee since 1997, and i can tell you that just about every gold medal was unanimous. and i was commenting and the one that everyone could understand the most is when the tiger got out in the zoo. and is the police department went in with .40 calibers to

hunt tigers. and someone said there is only three things that tigers do. they eat. they sleep and they make baby tigers. and that's all they do. and so to go in and they rightfully got a gold medal. the threshold for the gold medal, outstanding bravery of that expected in the line of duty, where risk of life existed and the officer had sufficient time to evaluate that risk. and the objective is sufficient importance to justify that risk, and the officer was able to accomplish the objective by disabling injury or death. and sadly we have awarded more gold medals than i would like to talk about postously.

and silver medals of honor, is awarded when the following elements exist. when the officer protessed outstanding bravery not in the provisions provided for the gold medal of valor. where the officer assessed the damage involved or a reasonable person would consider that his or her life was in grave danger. where objective is of sufficient importance to accomplish the risk and the officer accomplished beyond their control. a silver medal is a big deal. bronze medal, the third medal of valor, the members of the award committee shall evaluate and determine by their vote whether a silver or bronze medal of

valor is granted. a bronze medal of valor is a big deal. the only thing it feels like not a big deal, when you go in and think you get a gold, silver or bronze, the road to where you are, a bronze medal of valor. i don't have one. it's unbelievable to do what you did to get that honor. and there are more bronze honor medals of valor awarded since i remember since 1997. and you are to be congratulated. so my message to you all. i will go to a movie, i am a big movie guy. there is a scene in one of the "three muskateer," they are trapped and don't have anything but their swords. and they know that everyone else

around the corner has guns. and aramus says, hey, they have been winged on our legends. it's an advantage. and then plutus that is the attack guy, exactly, so we should charge them. and they do. and all the guns go off. and they live. because i only watch movies where the good guys win. so my message is, we are hiring 1,000 police officers. we got about 200ish in the pipe once september starts. they are being weaned on your legend. so when you hear these stories tonight, just know that you are impacting 1,000 cops just like the 1,000 before impacted us. congratulations.

>> thank you, chief. i had to do a little clean up. i failed to thank sergeant darcy for his rendition of the national anthem. could we give him a round of applause. and could i have a round of applause for the color guard that did a beautiful job posting the colors. [applause] thank you, now we will start the ceremony and the presentation of the awards. first i would like to call up sergeant thomas mcmahon and commander garrity to read the citation.

>> on new year's day, january 1, 2012, officer mcmahon responded to the crystal hotel at the tenderloin. to a distraught woman hanging on a fire escape near the top of the roof of a six-story building, between the roof and the upper floor. officer mcmahon assessed the situation and responded to the top of the building. and once there made verbal contact with the woman and spoke with her and get a kind of story or rapport with the woman, and the woman told her life story. why she was on the roof and why she was going to jump. i want to emphasize that then

officer mcmahon was able to establish and maintain a rapport with her and the issues and homeless and wanted to end her life as others looked on at the christa hotel. throughout the conversation the woman told the officer that she didn't want to live anymore. and wanted to jump. and assessing that situation, then officer mcmahon -- now sergeant mcmahon realized this would not go well, and edged closer to the woman. on this narrow fire escape on a building that was built in 1926. during that course of that conversation, the woman began to edge to the very end of the fire escape and suddenly jumped. officer mcmahon with both arms grabbed her around the upper

torso and helderhelder -- held suspended over the sidewalk on tenderloin. and he kept holding on to her as officer dags and sergeant ryan step on the fire escape and assisted sergeant mcmahon to bring the woman into the building and down to the paramedics waiting below. this is actions saved this woman's life. she would have perished on the sidewalk below. officer mcmahon single handedly saved a life that day. he exhibited a perfect accommodation of compassion and bravery, he risked his life to save the life of a person that he did not know and a life that she was about to end. his actions exemplified that of

a san francisco police officer and one that is extraordinary. thomas mcmahon which he received a bronze medal of valor.

>> thank you, sergeant, one round of applause for the sergeant, please. [applause] thank you, now i would like to call up captain mcfadden to read the citation for lieutenant chaplin and sergeant mcdonald. tony, and deon, you can come now, thank you. is captain mcfadden here. behind me. okay. >> on september 20, 2012, then sergeant tony chaplain, star number 951, and now lieutenant chaplain, and deon mcdonald,

star 963 were assigned to the gang task force with two probation officers. they were conducting probation compliance investigations on high-risk juvenile gang members. they were aware of a gang-related homicide that had occurred just five days prior. and which a known gang member had been killed and they were expecting retaliation. they drove through the mission district in a known area frequented by gang members. shortly before 8 p.m. the crime members were travelling east, and recognized a known gang member walking on the sidewalk. sergeant mcdonald knew the gang member as a parolee that shot two people from an incident two

years prior. mcdonald notified chaplain of the location of the suspect. as they pulled their unmarked police vehicle up to the location. both sergeants and probation officers noticed that the suspect had a bulge in his waist area and wearing gloves and attempting to conceal the object. the suspect turned and noticed the probation officers and walked toward them. within six to eight feet of them. just of note, the probation officers are unarmed. but they have vast knowledge of san francisco gang members and often aid gang-task officers. lieutenant chaplain and mcdonald quickly recognizing the

potential for violence and danger. immediately exited their vehicle and approached the suspect. in an effort to distract the suspect and save the li life-threatening encounter, sergeant chaplain yelled, stop, police. the suspect ran on 14th street exposing the rifle in his waist area he was attempting to conceal. sergeant chaplain yelled, gun, gun, drop the gun. this done for two reasons, to notify the suspect and two for the officers to know he had a gun. sergeant chaplain ran after this gun-toting suspect that ignored the order to drop the gun.

and probation officers gave charge of the suspect. and the suspect turned twice to sergeant chaplin with a fully-loaded assault weapon. and the suspect turned with the assault weapon in the direction of sergeant chaplain and attempted to line a shot on him. fearing for his life, the lives of other officers and the lives of innocent citizens, sergeant chaplain fired at the suspect three times wounding him. and sergeant chaplain took him to the ground and handcuffed him and seized the rifle. an inspection of this firearm revealed it was loaded with 25

live rounds. collier having knowledge that the gang members commonly traveled in packs. and recognized another known gang member in the same block in a vehicle. and i want to honor those probation officers that are out in the audience. [applause] it's been my pleasure to have these two fine sergeants at the time, and now lieutenants obviously, and i have lost tony -- if i can get you back, i would love to have you back. for their heroism and valor, lieutenant tony chaplain is awarded the silver medal of valor and sergeant mcdonald is awarded the bronze medal valor. [applause]

>> lieutenant chaplain, sergeant mcdonald. [applause] excuse me, now will the officers from the post street incident please stand. and captain mannix will read the citation, i won't fall for that twice, i know she's behind me. >> it's a large number. good evening. tonight i will present a complicated and violent event

that will result in 30 medals of valor, and it's so complicated that i will read from the original presentation. wednesday, may 9, 200012, two police detectives responded to 861 post street san francisco, they were in search of homicide suspect, dennis hughes, wanted for the murder of his mother that happened days prior. they met with hughes's girlfriend at the front door and said he was inside, and they called for teams to assist. officers roberta, hines and laprit responded to the scene.

responding back to apartment 12. officer roberta was the first to enter the apartment with the remaining officers behind him. as they entered, they identified themselves as officers and advised hughes they wanted to talk to him. officer roberta took a few steps to his left in the hallway and heard the sound of gunfire coming from inside of the apartment. he identified that hughes was firing at them out of view. and they took up positions of concealment on both sides of the front door. a call for additional officers were made and the officers before you responded to assist the officers on scene. officers hines and huey were relieved of their positions and went across to the apartment of the rear side that hughes

resided. setting up assault rifles, and officer huey continued to broadcast clear and concise and calm. a short time after the initial response of additional officers, hughes released a chemical in the hallways. having been shot at, the officers on scene are having difficulty breathing. as they continued unfazed to keep the suspect lock downed. and planned for an eventual encounter with the suspect. at some point of his volleys of gunshot, hughes had thick, black smoke filling the apartment and making it difficult for the officers to see and breathe. but they