Firefighter saves a cop's life....with a gun...

[virginia mountainman]

This firefighter retrieved his PERSONAL firearm, and saved a police
officer.

The firefighters continued to distract Cruz. O'Berry went to his car and got his Glock .40 and ran after Cruz as the paramedics attended to
Rua, who suffered a broken arm and fractured skull. Cruz pointed Rua's
gun but O'Berry fired, striking him several times.Police Officer
Joseph DeRogatis also fired at Cruz. The paramedics rushed to tend to
Cruz after he was shot, but he later died.

O'Berry, who has worked as a firefighter for 20 years, said receiving
the combat cross was an honor.

"My fear was for the officer," O'Berry said. "He was in a bad
situation, we thought he was dead."

Cruz was released from jail just four days earlier on a charge of
attacking a Rivera Beach police officer but was stopped in that case
with a stun gun.

"The firefighter used his firearm and probably saved the officer's
life," Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. "You just don't expect that."

http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-ems/articles/603753-Fla-firefighter-honored-for-saving-cop-shooting-suspect/

[NYC_SKP]

1. Wow. Here's the first four paragraphs of story:

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — One of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office's combat crosses given out Friday went to an unlikely candidate: a firefighter.

It was the first combat cross the agency has given to someone who isn't a law enforcement officer. That's because County Fire-Rescue Capt. Edwin O'Berry helped stop an armed suspect who nearly beat a police officer to death. O'Berry stopped suspect Mauricio Cruz by shooting him.

But it was also with the help of 13 firefighters that the officer was rescued. Those 12 men and one woman were honored with Samaritan awards at the Sheriff's Office annual awards ceremony.

On April 8 around 7:20 a.m. Fire-Rescue Station 31 in Palm Springs was going through a shift change and O'Berry was just getting to work when the firefighters saw Cruz, 35, beating Palm Springs Police Officer Douglas Rua in the head with a ceramic flower pot, then switch to Rua's gun. A fence separated the firefighters from the officer in the 3300 block of Second Avenue North, so they shouted to get Cruz's attention while scaling the fence.

k n r.

[Hoopla Phil]

2. K and R.

[TPaine7]

3. This is very bad...

Violence only begets violence.

Violence is never the answer.

Violence never solved anything.

Cruz would be alive today but for O'Berry's killing machine. Since every life is precious, shooting Cruz was obviously wrong.

Guns have only one purpose--murder. (Unfortunately, the paper left out the part about O'Berry being charged for this vicious crime.)

O'Berry should have used non-violent conflict resolution methods.

We should not take the law into our own hands.

Vigilantism is always wrong. Shooting to protect innocent life is vigilantism, obviously.

In a civilized society, only the government may use force.

Civilians don't have the training and temperament to handle weapons. It's only a fluke that O'Berry didn't shoot himself or one of the neighborhood children.

Leave law enforcement to the professionals--the people who keep each and every one of us 100% safe every day.

O'Berry is very lucky that Cruz didn't take his gun away and use it on him--the normal result in these scenarios. But just because one guy won the lottery...

O'Berry undoubtedly has a very small penis.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. Hope the officer recovers fully.

[Noseyaboutpollution]

5. MSAR e4s for Paramedics here

First responders are being issued two carbines/ambulence.