EPD Officers Recognized For Heroism

EVANSTON, IL — The Kiwanis Club of Evanston honored three Evanston police officers with the Distinguished Service Award Tuesday.

Officers Heidi Bernhardt, Paulina Pogorzelski and William Arzuaga received the award for their "exceptional contributions and dedicated service to [their] profession, [their] department and the Evanston community," police announced. The Evanston Police Department commended the officers, who were recognized for their responses to two events last year.

On April 21, 2016 at approximately 2:33 p.m., Officer Arzuaga was dispatched to the 1900 block of Jackson Avenue for a call of a 17-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to his leg. Officer Arzuaga saw the victim bleeding heavily and quickly applied a tourniquet to the victim's leg to stop the bleeding. At the hospital, doctors discovered the bullet had severed an artery and required extensive surgery to repair. The boy's surgeons credited the quick thinking and proper application of the tourniquet by Officer Arzuaga with keeping the victim alive and stabilized until he could be operated on at the hospital.

On Oct. 22, 2016 at approximately 9:43 a.m. an Evanston Police Officer was struck by a dump truck. She had been putting down stop signs in the intersection of Dodge Avenue and Emerson streets when the truck, heading eastbound on Emerson, run over her leg. Officers Bernhardt and Pogorzelski happened to be driving by at the time and witnessed the incident. They stopped the driver of the truck from rolling any further over the officer and called paramedics. They got the driver of the truck to back it up off the officer's leg and tended to her until paramedics arrived. The injured officer is still working to recover

The Evanston Police Department described the officers as a credit to the department and said their actions demonstrated their dedication to the Evanston community.

» via Evanston Police Department

Top photo: (From left to right) Officer Heidi Bernhardt, Officer Paulina Pogorzelski, Officer William Arzuaga