By Owen Woods | owen@alamosacitizen.com
DURING Wednesday’s County Commissioners Meeting, Sheriff Robert Jackson and Undersheriff Shawn Woods presented four Life-Saving Achievement Awards and one Special Commendation for Bravery.
Jackson said, “If you would ask them they would simply tell you that they’re just doing their job. During the last year and a half or so, some of the situations that these deputies have found themselves in have pushed the limits that their emotional well-being can handle.”
Deputies Perfecto Hijar and Seth Hoffman were presented their awards first. Hijar and Hoffman responded to an incident in January 2021 where a woman was unconscious in her vehicle on Santa Fe Avenue. The woman had overdosed and was in distress. Hijar and Hoffman broke the window and pulled the woman from her car, and gave her Narcan. Woods said that these actions saved the woman’s life.
Deputy Austen Reneau was called out to County Road 111 for a cardiac arrest “in progress” in February 2022. Reneau administered CPR until EMS arrived. He then drove the ambulance to the hospital while the EMTs continued to care for the patient.
Deputy Antonio Edwards in October 2021 gave aid to a victim of a gunshot wound. This was during an agency assist in Saguache County. A man was shot in the chest, then the shooter drove down Highway 17 with the victim in the car. They were pulled over just outside Mosca, where the shooter was arrested and Edwards gave life-saving aid to the victim.
Jackson states that Edwards “got his trauma pack out and plugged both wounds, and waited for EMS to arrive, helped get him into the ambulance, rode in the ambulance all the way to the hospital with him.”
Jackson said that this highlights what his deputies do and that “we’re also pretty good ambulance drivers.”
The last award was presented to Deputy Shelly Rodman. In September 2021, Rodman was on patrol in Mosca when she witnessed a dog running toward an elderly woman. Rodman placed herself between the dog and the woman until the dog ran off. The woman wrote a letter to the Valley Courier stating that Deputy Rodman “saved my life.”
