By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A group of LAPD officers nominated for a national top cops award for their valiant work in a standoff that took the life of SWAT officer Randall D. Simmons will meet today with President Obama at the White House Rose Garden.
The 15 officers, including SWAT Officer James Veenstra, who was wounded in the 2008 incident, will be in Washington as nominees for the Top Cops Award, sponsored by the National Assn. of Police Organizations, which honors law enforcement officers from across the country for outstanding service.
“The officers nominated this year by the [police union] are heroes in every sense of the word,” said Los Angeles Police Protective League President Paul M. Weber. “Their focus and courage under fire epitomizes what it means to be a police officer.”
In the Feb. 7, 2008, incident, police confronted a man in the San Fernando Valley who claimed to have killed three people and wanted officers to kill him. SWAT unit members broke through the front door of the man’s Winnetka home, believing hostages might still be alive inside.
The partially hidden man opened fire on the officers with a semiautomatic handgun, and Veenstra and Simmons were immediately hit. Simmons was killed by a round of bullets that struck him in the neck and lodged in his brain stem. Both men were rescued by colleagues under fire.
The shooter, Edwin Rivera, 20, was killed by a police sniper as he shot at officers and tried to flee his home, which had caught fire after tear-gas canisters were launched to force him out, more than 10 hours after the standoff began.
In addition to Veenstra, the union nominated David Keortge, Floyd Curry, Tom Chinappi, Mike Barker, Mike Odle, Richard Alba, Mark Nee, Daniel Sanchez, Douglas Dingman, Charles Buttitta, German Hurtado, George Ryan, Anthony Samuelson and Steve Scallon for courage and bravery under fire.
Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times