Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 8:56 a.m.
Three men leaving a movie at the Palms on a Saturday night in February followed the sound of a baby crying in the parking lot and soon found a newborn boy, umbilical cord still attached, wrapped in a blue blanket under a pickup truck.
The men contacted security, and later authorities discovered the baby was born in a vehicle about seven cars from where he was found. Both baby and mother were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, and now the boy is OK and the mother has been charged for leaving him.
The three men, Richard Louis Callotta, Arthur Esposo and George Raymond Lopez, were honored Monday for their actions on Feb. 28. They may have saved the baby's life, police said.
The three received certificates of appreciation from Sheriff Bill Young during a 2 p.m. ceremony in Council Chambers at Las Vegas City Hall.
The Use of Force Board, the DARE detail, as well as 14 Metro Police officers and detectives involved in the Explorer Organization were also honored.
Others received recognition at the ceremony, including Metro Officer Brian Hibbetts, who revived a woman found lying on the ground in front of a bus stop on Dec. 7, 2003. Hibbetts found the woman without a pulse and not breathing.
After he requested medical assistance, Hibbetts used life saving skills he had learned as an emergency medical technician. Within a matter of minutes, the woman began to breathe and her pulse returned. He saved her life and may have prevented irreparable brain damage, officials said.
Also recognized was Conrad Malsom, who on March 17 spotted a vehicle belonging to Ohio sniper suspect Charles McCoy. Malsom said that earlier he collected items touched by the suspect at the Stardust Sports Book and took them to the FBI. Police arrested McCoy at a Budget Suites room.
Officer Sean Hendrickson received a lifesaving award for a call on Jan. 25 that said a 17-year-old boy was unconscious. Hendrickson found him having a heart attack and performed CPR for 10 minutes until the teenager survived.
Also receiving lifesaving awards were Corrections Officer Jon Horschmann, who saved a prisoner from choking on March 1, and Officers William Kurau and Terri Miller, who treated a victim with several gunshot wounds from an armed robbery at Marion Street and Owens Avenue on March 20.
Sgt. Paul Page received a community service award for off-duty time spent after he became a national vice president in the Association of Certified Fraud Specialists Inc. He is now national president of the association.
Corrections Officer Paul Elizondo received a community service award after organizing a fund-raiser for a transplant for his 4-month-old daughter's rare heart condition and Sgt. Richard Scobie's 13-month-old daughter diagnosed with acute myloblastic leukemia. The event raised $3,700.
Meritorious service awards were given to Sgt. John Prescott, Officers Craig Dahl, Dave Hastie and T.J. Lau after they rescued a paranoid schizophrenic's elderly mother held as a hostage by her son, who was armed and threatened to shoot them. The standoff ended peacefully.
Officers Anthony Archer and Rodney Mitchell also received a meritorious service award for rescuing a mother whose son was holding a knife at his 2-year-old son's throat. The officers safely rescued the child and arrested the suspect on Nov. 16, 2003.
Corrections Officers Jimmy Braido and Keith Villard discovered an overturned vehicle on fire at Town Center and Hualapai Way on Jan. 4, 2004. Without protective equipment, Braido started dousing the fire with an extinguisher while Villard pulled a trapped woman from the burning car. They received meritorious service awards for their efforts.
Meritorious service awards went to Officers Raymond Berni and David Hastie, who went to the aid of a woman on a third-floor hotel room window ledge threatening to kill herself with a knife on Nov. 28, 2003. The officers entered the room with a pass key and grabbed her from behind, disarming her before anyone was injured.
Squad BA-12 received a unit meritorious service award for capturing two auto burglary suspects, responding to a shooting that turned into murder and controlling an angry and panicky crowd of bar patrons. All suspects were captured in the 3100 block of West Sahara Avenue on Oct. 11, 2003.
Officers Thomas Faller, Greg Theobald, Brooke Lavin and acting Sgt. Rory Neslund rescued a man being beaten by a crowd of up to 20 individuals about 3 a.m. New Year's Day and quelled a surrounding mob that numbers in the hundreds. Lavin was attacked, suffering several blows to her face that knocked her unconscious. The four officers received a meritorious service award and a purple heart.
Lt. Tod Snodgrass, detectives Al Cervantes and Allen Garris were awarded medals of valor after disarming a suspect who had kidnapped a local doctor at gunpoint. The doctor was released unharmed on Aug. 11, 2003 at a Walgreens near Serene and Eastern avenues.
In addition to a medal of valor, Officers Ian Ryan, Patrick Walters and Kenny Delzer received purple hearts for confronting an armed robber at the front doors of the Paris Hotel and, after Officer Delzer was shot in the upper right thigh, shot the suspect on Jan. 10.
archive
