By Joanna Putman
Police1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An officer who was shot in the chest while on duty last year received a Valor Award at the Ohio Law Enforcement Conference, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office reported.
Sgt. Eric Kocheran was finishing his shift when a man knocked at the window of the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, according to the report. The man told him to go get more officers. When Kocheran asked him why, he claimed that someone threatened to hurt his family if he didn’t come to the station with a gun, seemingly to hurt officers.
After Kocheran told him to put the gun down multiple times, his body camera footage shows the man firing at Kocheran. Kocheran returned fire and killed the man.
The bullet bruised Kocheran’s heart, punctured his left lung and ended up in his liver. He underwent multiple surgeries and was in a medically induced coma. He is unlikely to ever return to duty, according to the report.
Sheriff George W. Lavender Jr., who nominated Kocheran, said the gunman “was intent on killing someone that day.” And even though his sergeant “did everything possible to avoid taking a life,” he said, “in the end, by taking a life, he possibly saved countless others.”