By Senta Scarborough, The Arizona Republic
MESA, Arizona -- A former Mesa police sergeant who was recently demoted for his role in a fatal officer-involved shooting has won an award for saving a man’s life.
Officers Larry Hall and Brent Frasier will receive a plaque and uniform ribbon in a Nov. 8 ceremony. Mesa police’s meritorious-conduct board has decided to honor them for their response to a Sept. 7 suicidal call.
Two months ago, Police Chief Dennis Donna demoted Hall after an internal review board found he violated department policy in a Sept. 6, 2003, standoff that ended in the shooting death of mentally disabled woman.
Days after being demoted, Hall answered a call about a possibly suicidal person. A 32-year-old man, distraught because his 3-year-old daughter had died, had been drinking. He was trying to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning, police said.
When Hall arrived, the man wasn’t there. The man called his wife, who got a possible location, but Hall and Frasier still couldn’t find him. Hall contacted the man’s wife again and spoke with the man by cellphone. The man was incoherent, but Hall learned that he was in the Las Sendas neighborhood near a “diamond.” Hall contacted a security company for help, and he and Frasier searched again. They found the man unconscious in a Lexus with the engine running. A pool hose was running from the exhaust pipe into the passenger compartment, police said. They got the man out.
“Something like this happens and you are able to bring the guy home to his family, and it makes the job worth it,” Hall said.