By Marisa Lagos
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — One year after fatally shooting the 243-pound Siberian tiger that escaped and killed a visitor at the San Francisco Zoo, four city police officers will be recognized as heroes at a special awards ceremony.
It’s taken a long time to schedule the event, but Police Department officials say that doesn’t mean that what the four officers did the night of Christmas 2007 is any less impressive.
Certainly, Officers Scott Biggs, Yukio Oshita, Kevin O’Leary and Daniel Kroos had little formal training on how to handle such a scene. They don’t really teach tiger-escape scenarios at the police academy. And that night they approached the beast with just their .40-caliber service weapons as it chewed on two visitors.
That tiger, you’ll remember, had attacked and disfigured a zookeeper the year before. Check out the story about the subsequent lawsuit on Page B2.
The officers will be honored for their bravery by the San Francisco Police Commission at 6 p.m. on Feb. 4.
Copyright 2009 San Francisco Chronicle