Editorial: A hero among heroes

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 4:51 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 23-24, 2005

To hear Metro Police Sgt. Ruben Hood tell it, saving a man's life in downtown Las Vegas is all in a day's work. On July 1, alerted to a burning automobile by a dispatcher, Hood arrived to find a man behind the wheel. Fighting back flames, he opened the driver's-side door, only to get punched in the face by the apparently suicidal man. Resisting Hood's efforts to save him, the man slid toward the passenger's door. In spite of the man's kicks, Hood persevered. "I then reached for his shirt and his belt -- and for lack of a better word -- ripped him out of the car," Hood told the Las Vegas Sun.

Little of this would have been known, except for a Fremont Street Experience camera that recorded the action. Hood himself glossed over his heroics in filing a report on the incident. After seeing the video on July 15, however, Hood's supervisor recommended him for the Medal of Honor, Metro's second-highest award. Also, Fremont Street Experience security officer Billy Ward was recommended for a Certificate of Appreciation for helping Hood drag the man away from the burning vehicle.

Hood, 35, already has three medals for bravery. But he reminds those who want to call him a hero that his fellow officers would do the same thing. "I've been shot at and stabbed, just like many other cops," he said. "I'm not a hero." We admire Hood for his bravery, and also for the reminder that, for police officers, such calls really are all in a day's work.