Seven law enforcement officers were honored with the H. Thomas Guerry Award for Valor and five others received the Superior Performance Award during the 52nd annual H. Thomas Guerry Awards on Wednesday afternoon.
The award, given by the Santa Barbara Citizens Council on Crime, is named in honor of Detective Tom Guerry, who was killed in the line of duty in Santa Barbara on Jan. 13, 1970.
On Nov. 17, 2021, Santa Barbara Police Department Officer Adrian Gutierrez was driving in his patrol vehicle when he was alerted by civilians of a structure fire on Spring Street.
After advising dispatch of the fire, Gutierrez heard someone screaming for help from inside the residential home that was then engulfed in flames. He immediately went to rescue the person trapped inside the house.
Gutierrez broke the window with his police baton and Officer Davina Valerio pushed furniture out of the way. The two were then able to pull the subject out through the window, and Valerio and Officer Christina Ortega ensured that no one else was trapped inside.
After Santa Barbara firefighters extinguished the fire, it was determined that the resident most likely would have perished if not rescued by the officers.
“I came into this profession to make a difference behind the uniform,” said Valerio, who was on her fifth day of training with Ortega that day. “It’s an honor to have that opportunity to make a difference, let alone save someone’s life.”
It was also Valerio’s first service call to which she drove.
Lompoc Police Department Detectives David Magana and Gabriel Molina received the honor for their work catching and apprehending an armed shooting suspect, who was an active gang member.
On the evening of Sept. 11, 2021, the detectives responded to the scene of a shooting with two intended victims. When arriving near the area, Magana and Molina saw someone who matched the suspect description.
The suspect then fled on foot and Molina pursued the suspect on foot, while Magana drove ahead of the foot pursuit before exiting the vehicle. They did that knowing that the suspect had a gun.
The suspect, who was an active gang member with an extensive criminal history, was then taken into custody. The suspect had also been found to be responsible for another shooting two blocks from the original, and the firearm recovered matched five other shooting investigations in Lompoc.
“[During the foot pursuit] there’s adrenaline, it’s kind of scary, but at the same time we have a job to do, so we have to go get our guy,” Molina said.
Magana and Molina are both part of the Lompoc Police Department’s Detectives Special Investigations Unit, which is assigned to address the gang problem in Lompoc.
“This is our job, this is what we do all the time,” Magana said.
Senior Deputy David Ashley and Deputy Rockwell Ellis of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office also received the Guerry Award after rescuing a subject trapped in a fire on Nov. 9, 2021.
Ashley and Ellis were the first to arrive on the scene of a fire on Orange Avenue in Goleta, where dark black smoke was pouring out of the structure.
Even though the thick smoke made it difficult to see inside, Ashley held his breath, dropped to the ground and went in to rescue a woman unconscious about 20 feet inside the structure.
As Ashley was nearly out of the building, pulling the woman behind him, he took a breath and began to feel dizzy from the smoke and hot air.
Ellis then went in and pulled both Ashley and the woman out of the building.
The two brought the woman to the street to provide aid until additional personnel arrived, saving her from a fire that she likely would not otherwise survive.
Law enforcement personnel recognized with the Superior Performance Award include Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office pilot Loren Courtney, Lomopc Police Department Officer David Garza, Santa Barbara County Probation Department Supervising Probation Officer Joseph Contreras, Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office chief investigator Kristina Perkins and California Highway Patrol Officer Tyler Kelly.
The full Guerry Award ceremony can be viewed on CSBTV’s YouTube channel, and it will also be rebroadcast on CSBTV Cable 20 at 6 p.m., Monday May 23, and 4 p.m., Thursday, May 25.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.