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Elkader police officer receives Meritorious Service Medal

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Elkader police officer Adam DeShaw (center) recently accepted a Meritorious Service Medal for actions he took on the night of Aug. 20, 2018, while a deputy with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. Capt. Steven Rolen (left) from the Detention Services Bureau in Centennial, Colo., presented the medal to DeShaw. Sgt. Matthew Davis also made the trip from Colorado to honor DeShaw. (Submitted photo)

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

Elkader police officer Adam DeShaw recently accepted a Meritorious Service Medal at a small ceremony at city hall for actions he took on the night of Aug. 20, 2018, while a deputy with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. 

On that night, DeShaw, along with other law enforcement agencies and personnel, responded to a “shots fired” call in which officer Cory Sack of the Cherry Hills Village Police Department had been wounded, shot in the left leg and right foot after responding to a home invasion robbery. 

Upon arriving at the scene, DeShaw applied a tourniquet to Sack’s left leg while fellow deputy Benjamin Sears provided lethal cover. Then, as a team, DeShaw and other law enforcement at the scene began to carry Sack to the street in order to meet paramedics. 

During that time, the team took turns carrying Sack and providing cover for one another, as the suspect’s location was not known at the time. The group was able to extricate Sack to a location where a SMFRA Rescue Taskforce could provide care and transport to a level I trauma center. 

Capt. Steven Rolen from the Detention Services Bureau in Centennial, Colo., who presented the medal to DeShaw, said of the incident, “Deputy DeShaw’s actions to respond quickly, run into a hot zone, assess the wounds and apply a tourniquet to control bleeding resulted in officer Sack’s survival and ultimate recovery to return to full duty.” 

Rolen and Sgt. Matthew Davis drove all the way from Colorado to present the medal to DeShaw in person on Oct. 15. 

The medal is awarded to those officers “who, by their actions, have shown poise, leadership and diligence during a critical incident,” and “who, by their actions, placed themselves in situations that involved risk while attempting to keep another person from suffering serious bodily injury.” 

DeShaw is the 159th recipient of the medal since 1858. 

“I am honored to have received the award,” said DeShaw. “I was speechless with the amount of people there and that Capt. Rolen and Sgt. Davis had driven all the way out here to present me with the award.”

“It was one of the worst calls to ever respond to as a police officer,” he added. “I know that day, when I called my wife, she was pretty stressed. She never liked getting a phone call saying that something happened, and I was going to be late. Since that day, Cory has returned to full duty. My wife and kids have gotten to meet him and his kids. It’s pretty cool seeing him playing with his kids after that day.”

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