TANYA EISERER, Staff Writer
Dallas Morning News
As bullets were still flying, Senior Cpl. Roger Rudloff saved the life of an injured colleague by pulling him out of the line of fire.
“I have no doubt that if not for Sr. Cpl. Roger Rudloff’s quick and clear-headed action, I would not be here today,” Senior Cpl. Jeremy Borchardt wrote in a letter praising Cpl. Rudloff’s actions in the August hostage situation.
For his heroism and hard-working performance as an officer, Cpl. Rudloff was named the Dallas Police Association’s Cop’s Cop at a banquet Saturday night. The award is a peer-based honor. Prior Cop’s Cop winners make the selection.
“I want to make the streets safe and to put bad guys in jail,” said Cpl. Rudloff, an 11-year veteran who works an overnight shift at Northwest patrol. “I love doing it. I can’t believe they pay us to do this job.”
He has amassed some 80 commendations with the department and has also been honored with the department’s certificate of merit.
The West Texas native is regarded as a “dependable go-to guy,” his supervisor, Sgt. Kevin Campbell, wrote in his letter nominating him for the award. “He has not met an arrest he could not handle nor a call too complicated to solve.”
Cpl. Rudloff also tries to pass on his knowledge to new officers by working as one of the department’s trainers for rookies.
During the August hostage situation, Cpl. Rudloff and his fellow officers had responded to a disturbance at a hotel on Mockingbird Lane in the Stemmons Corridor. A man was holding a woman hostage inside the room.
The suspect fired a weapon, and the bullet traveled through a wall and struck Cpl. Borchardt in the upper left thigh, severing his femoral artery.
“I yelled to Rudloff that I had been hit,” Cpl. Borchardt wrote. “He immediately sprang into action, without an instant of hesitation.”
As the gunman continued to fire rounds, Cpl. Rudloff dragged a profusely bleeding Cpl. Borchardt down the hall and to safety.
"[I] have always considered him to be one of the best officers I have ever worked with,” wrote Cpl. Borchardt, who is still recovering from his wounds.
Copyright 2007 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS