Police officers win medals for courage

Pinned between his squad car and a fleeing suspect's station wagon, Seattle police Officer Seth Dietrich broke department policy and holstered his gun.

Dietrich had stopped to buy coffee in North Seattle when he heard that fellow officers were chasing a domestic-disturbance suspect, Achilles Abella. He tried to help trap the suspect on a dead-end street. But Abella raced his car toward him.

"There was no way I could get out of his way," Dietrich recalled last week.

Dietrich fired his gun four times, hitting Abella in the thigh. But then Dietrich saw two babies in the back of Abella's station wagon.

"When I saw there were kids in the car, I knew I couldn't shoot anymore," said Dietrich, whose knee was injured when Abella's car hit him. "So I put my gun back in the holster."

Other officers pulled Abella from the car, then helped Dietrich get free.

For his actions during the June 13, 2003, incident, Dietrich joined four other Seattle police officers Saturday in receiving the department's annual medals of valor at a ceremony at the Westin Hotel.

The others receiving the Medal of Valor were Officers Rich Pruitt, Mike McDonald, Brian Hunt and James Thomsen.

Pruitt and McDonald were directing traffic on Capitol Hill on March 17 when they were called to the Miller Community Center. Dori Cordova, 31, had been fatally shot by her estranged boyfriend. The officers saw the man, Lawrence Owens, reloading his shotgun, and McDonald shot and killed Owens, 43.

Hunt and Thomsen helped other local officers and federal agents capture Kristopher Harrison Larsen after a 9-year-old Mercer Island girl was abducted for ransom in April. Hunt and Thomsen led a pack of police cars that chased Larsen until his car was forced to a stop near Monroe. The girl was not injured.

Larsen pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and is awaiting trial.

The department's Officers of the Year are Mark Volluz and Greg Drury. Detectives of the year are Natale Gasparetti and Steven Kilburg.

Volluz and Drury were honored for their work in the narcotics unit. With the assistance of their police dogs, Scar and Duke, the officers found drugs and money over the past year that their bosses say would have been overlooked without their help.

Gasparetti and Kilburg were honored for immersing themselves in the culture of homeless youth to catch the killers of Nick Helhowski, a 20-year-old advocate for street kids who was beaten to death near Green Lake in April 2002. In May, Charles Littlebear and Anthony Weaver were sentenced to prison in the attack.

Officer Sally Haubert received the Medal of Courage.

She was driving through Black Diamond in April when she saw an elderly man slumped over the steering wheel of his truck. The pickup accelerated and crashed into a tree. Haubert broke the driver's side window and gave the man CPR until medics arrived, saving the man's life.

Lt. Bill Edwards, Detective John Crumb, Officer Renee Witt, Lt. Andrew Tooke, and civilian employees Nancy Gratton and Bob Miller received the department's inspirational medal. Robin Borrow has been named civilian employee of the year.

Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com