FORMER BRENHAM POLICE OFFICER HONORED BY COLLEGE STATION PD FOR SAVING LIFE OF SHOOTING VICTIM

  

A former member of the Brenham Police Department has received the highest award of the College Station Police Department.

Officer Lance Weiss was one of seven College Station police officers to be presented the Medal of Honor in recognition of their work to save the life of a shooting victim last year.  The award is issued to any employee who acts in a brave or heroic manner, without regard for personal safety, to protect or save the life of another.

Weiss and the six other officers responded to the shooting when a caller said he had been shot and was dying.  Officers learned the victim and suspect were in the same apartment, no one was answering the door, and the victim was unable to escape.

Knowing a suspect armed with a shotgun was inside, officers breached the door, established defensive positions with little to no cover, and gained access to the victim.  One officer began attempting to negotiate with the suspect, who was barricaded in another room.  These negotiations succeeded in distracting the suspect so that other officers could rescue the victim.

Officers then used their traumatic injury first-aid kits to provide lifesaving medical treatment to the victim, who had suffered severe shotgun wounds. Officers were able to remove the victim from the apartment and get him to paramedics.  While continuing negotiations, the suspect fired a shot from his shotgun and officers backed out of the apartment.  CSPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics and Crisis Negotiators took over the scene and the standoff eventually ended peacefully.

The Associate Medical Director from the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Joseph Regional Hospital sent a letter commending the work the officers had done.  He said the officers that took care of this patient did an amazing job and he thinks the care the patient received saved his life.

Weiss was honored alongside officers Patrick Collins, Michael Pohl, Cody LaCombe and Brad Smith, in addition to Corporals Garrett Birdwell and Justin Carpenter.