3 Palatine Police Officials Honored For Lifesaving Heroics

PALATINE, IL — A trio of Palatine Police Department officers were honored during a ceremony this weekend as three people are alive today thanks to them. Daily Herald reports Palatine Police Department Chief Al Stoeckel handed out awards to Sgt. Bruce Morris, officer Christopher Stearns and officer Lucas Sopcak for their quick actions during life-saving incidents in the last six months, involving a special needs student, Palatine Park District employee and a young woman.

Sopcak was recognized for his actions in November, when he grabbed a 20-year-old woman and pulled her to safety after she threatened to take her life by trying to leap from the top of a five-story parking deck, Daily Herald reports.

According to the newspaper, Morris was recognized for responding to a report on March 8 of an employee suffering cardiac arrest at the park district's Wood Street headquarters, where upon his arrival a good Samaritan, though incorrectly, was doing chest compressions on the man. The news report adds that Morris took charge and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, taking the man to a hospital.

Daily Herald reports Stearns' was working as the school resource officer at Winston Campus on March 14 when he was called to a classroom where a nonverbal student was choking, eventually getting the student to breathe again thanks to performing the Heimlich Maneuver.

During the ceremony, Mayor Jim Schwantz congratulated the three officers and thanked them for their service in front of nearly 50 Palatine police colleagues, friends and family.

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