Moore first in Ohio to receive Congressional Badge of Bravery

Randa Wag­ner

Sen­a­tor Sher­rod Brown assists Dian­dra Moore as she pre­pares to award the Con­gres­sional Badge of Brav­ery to her hus­band as Con­gress­man Jim Jor­dan and Mor­row County Sher­iff Steve Bren­ne­man look on. (Sen­tinel Photo/Randa Wagner)

Sen­tinel Editor

Thurs­day was a mem­o­rable day for both Ohio and Mor­row County when Detec­tive Bran­don Moore became the first offi­cer in the state to receive the Con­gres­sional Badge of Bravery.

U.S. Sen. Sher­rod Brown joined Congress-man Jim Jor­dan in pre­sent­ing the award to Moore at a cer­e­mony held Jan. 12 at the Com­mu­nity Ser­vices build­ing in Mt. Gilead that was attended by pub­lic offi­cials, law enforce­ment offi­cers, and media per­son­nel from sev­eral counties.

Mor­row County Sher­iff Steve Bren­ne­man led the pro­gram, intro­duc­ing John Camp­bell, Cen­tral Ohio Dis­trict Direc­tor for U.S. Sen­a­tor Rob Port­man; Bar­bara Vanars­dall, Vic­tim Wit­ness Coor­di­na­tor and Fred Alver­son from the U.S. Attorney’s Office; and spe­cial guests Jim and Tom­mie Moore (Det. Moore’s par­ents) and Jeff and Teresa Levering.

Bren­ne­man recalled the events of that day, explain­ing the Octo­ber 21, 2010 inci­dent and its after­math. Moore’s vehi­cle was hit 16 times, he said, and 40 rounds were fired from Roush’s rifle. In spite of his injuries, Moore was able to hit his assailant from a dis­tance of about 55 yards and end the assault.

Before the badge was pre­sented to Moore, offi­cials offered their thoughts and con­grat­u­la­tions to Moore.

“It’s a priv­i­lege to stand along­side Sher­iff Bren­ne­man, Sen. Brown, and Con­gress­man Jor­dan to rec­og­nize Detec­tive Moore’s coura­geous actions,” John Camp­bell said. He deliv­ered a mes­sage from Sen­a­tor Port­man which read, in part:

“Every day our law enforce­ment offi­cers are at the front line risk­ing their lives to keep us safe and uphold the rule of law. This award was only estab­lished in 2008. Detec­tive Moore sets a high bar for future recip­i­ents. Moore stayed and risked his life because he saw there was more to the story than a prop­erty dispute.

“Law enforce­ment ulti­mately found 1700 plants, over 100 firearms and over 29,000 rounds of ammu­ni­tion, all because of your brav­ery. This is a model for all cit­i­zens, not just law enforce­ment per­son­nel. Like Det, Moore, we’re called to stay and do the right thing to its fullest. By swiftly return­ing fire after he’d already been shot repeat­edly, he pro­tected three neigh­bors from injury or death and saved his own life. Det. Moore, you’ve hon­ored the nation and Ohio, and on behalf of Sem. Port­man, thank you.”

“On behalf of U.S. Attor­ney Carter Stew­art and Bar­bara Vanars­dall and, as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the U.S. Dept. of Jus­tice, I appre­ci­ate the oppor­tu­nity to be here,” offered Fred Alver­son. “The Con­gres­sional Badge of Brav­ery is a new award cre­ated by the Jus­tice Dept. and, after hear­ing the sher­iff recount the tale, I have to think this is exactly what Con­gress had in mind when they wanted to rec­og­nize acts of brav­ery by men and women of law enforce­ment across the United States. You’re the first Ohioan to receive the Con­gres­sional Badge of Brav­ery, and it’s cer­tainly an appro­pri­ate honor and tremen­dous event that could have been a tragedy. Instead, it has become some­thing moti­va­tional for every­one in law enforce­ment at the fed­eral, state and local level. Thank you for your con­tri­bu­tions to keep­ing the peo­ple of Mor­row County, Ohio, safe.”

“We’re so thank­ful to you for your brav­ery,” said U.S. Sen. Sher­rod Brown. “Every day, we ask our law enforce­ment offi­cials to put their lives on the line to fight fires and address rob­beries– to patrol dan­ger­ous neigh­bor­hoods and inves­ti­gate vio­lent crimes. And while we may never guar­an­tee their safety, in hon­or­ing their ser­vice we give grat­i­tude for their sac­ri­fice. That’s what today is about. This com­mem­o­ra­tion embod­ies the very Amer­i­can val­ues of honor, duty, and sac­ri­fice that we see in Detec­tive Moore. And on this day and each day, we thank all those who serve in uni­form — as well as their fam­i­lies — for their con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to their communities.”

“It’s always appro­pri­ate to honor excel­lence and achieve­ment,” Con­gress­man Jim Jor­dan told atten­dees. “But when that achieve­ment is cou­pled with brav­ery and courage, it’s truly spe­cial. The men and women who put on the uni­form every day and risk their lives for the fam­i­lies and folks in their com­mu­ni­ties is some­thing to rec­og­nize and say thank you. We can’t thank you enough, and it’s a real plea­sure to be part of this today.”

Sen. Brown assisted while Dian­dra Moore placed the Con­gres­sional Badge of Brav­ery around her husband’s neck. When the applause ended, Moore addressed the room.

“I want to say a big word of thanks to all mem­bers of law enforce­ment that were able to be here,” Moore said. “It’s great to see their sup­port; it’s like hav­ing a sec­ond fam­ily through­out this whole ordeal. Many thanks to our sher­iff, who has been so sup­port­ive through­out this whole thing — every­body needs to be aware of what a great sher­iff we have in Steve Bren­ne­man. He’s been at every surgery he could pos­si­bly be at that I’ve gone through, and to see that sup­port from an elected offi­cial when I’m the ‘grunt,’ the lit­tle guy, he, too, sets a high bar for what other sher­iffs do in their jobs on a daily basis.

“Lastly, by way of thanks, is a thanks to the com­mu­nity in gen­eral. The out­pour­ing of sup­port in all its forms has been won­der­ful. From the fundraiser at Dave and Busters to being stopped in the aisle at the gro­cery store — it hap­pens every time I go to town. It’s so hum­bling to have some­one step away from what they’re doing to stop and say, ‘Mr. Moore, it’s great to meet you and thank you for what you did.’ That never gets old because that shows me the best of what human­ity has to offer when we see, so often in our jobs, the worst of what human­ity has to offer. It’s very refresh­ing and I want to thank the com­mu­nity for that.

“The word ‘hero’ has been used many times and it’s a very hum­bling thing to have some­one use that word on you,” Moore con­tin­ued. “I’d just like to point out the words of an ele­men­tary school teacher I know in Lex­ing­ton. The def­i­n­i­tion she used for ‘hero’ was ‘an ordi­nary per­son doing an extra­or­di­nary thing.’ I would sub­mit to you that you have many ordi­nary peo­ple in this county and nation that put on the badge and uni­form and go out and do extra­or­di­nary things for your com­mu­nity. Thank you for your support.”

Rec­og­niz­ing Sgt. Rob Chal­fant, Bren­ne­man said he was the first to respond back to the scene that was very chaotic when he arrived.

“The sus­pect was down but still armed with a hand­gun we didn’t know he had; the suspect’s wife was there hold­ing the assault rifle when he arrived and refused to put it down,” the sher­iff recalled. “He faced a very dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion and han­dled it very, very well. I’m very proud to have him here also. It’s an honor to be here as sher­iff of Mor­row County. I’m proud of being that and very hum­bled by it. We have a motto at the sheriff’s office on PRIDE: Pro­fes­sion­al­ism, Respect, Integrity, Ded­i­ca­tion, and Excel­lence. Bran­don exem­pli­fies that totally; the offi­cers and men and women of the sheriff’s office exem­plify that totally. I’m very proud and hum­bled to be able to serve with them as my coworkers.”

Also rec­og­nized were law enforce­ment offi­cers and agen­cies that had a key role in respond­ing to the site, pro­cess­ing the crime scene and assist­ing with the sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion. Cer­tifi­cates of appre­ci­a­tion were awarded to: Mt. Gilead Post 59 of the High­way Patrol, Card­ing­ton Police Depart­ment, Edi­son Police Depart­ment, Knox County Sheriff’s office, Franklin County Sheriff’s office, Colum­bus Divi­sion of Police, Mt. Gilead Police Depart­ment, Mor­row County EMS, Mar­ion County Sheriff’s office, Wyan­dot County Sheriff’s office, Ohio Bureau of Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion and Inves­ti­ga­tion, Union County Sheriff’s office, Big Wal­nut Fire Dis­trict, Delaware County Sheriff’s office, Colum­bus Field Divi­sion of ATF, Capi­tol City Lodge of the FOP Lodge #9, Craw­ford County Sheriff’s office, Mar­ion County Cor­rec­tional Facil­ity, and appre­ci­a­tion was expressed to Med­Flight doc­tors, Grant Hos­pi­tal Staff sur­geons, and staff.

Posted by Staff Reports on Jan 18 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.