The city of Lacey's police chief recognized a number of people within the department before the city council on Thursday, including two officers who were credited with life-saving acts in 2020 and 2021.
The two life-saving awards went to officers Al Stanford and Caelan Braniff, said Chief Robert Almada, who explained why they deserved the awards.
About 6 p.m., Nov. 21, 2020, Lacey police were dispatched to a man who had accidentally shot himself in the thigh while cleaning his pistol. The man, according to Almada, began to lose consciousness because of severe blood loss.
Cpl. Stanford responded to the scene and applied a tourniquet to the man's leg to stop the bleeding. Medical staff said later that the man would not have survived his injury without Stanford's help, according to Almada.
"A really big part of what we do is make sure our officers have tourniquets, know how to use them, how to apply emergency aid and Al certainly saved a life that day," Almada said.
The following year, Officer Braniff was called on in a difficult situation.
About 1:15 a.m., Oct. 17, 2021, Lacey police were dispatched to the 2900 block of Carpenter Road where a vehicle had crashed into a concrete wall and burst into flames. The driver and a passenger were still inside the burning vehicle.
Braniff responded and smashed out the driver-side window with his baton, but still couldn't get the vehicle door open. According to Almada, he then physically pried open the door to first rescue the driver and then the passenger before the vehicle was engulfed in flames.
Witnesses and fire crews at the scene said without Braniff's actions, the two inside the car would not have survived, according to Almada.
"If you haven't met Officer Braniff, a heart of gold and a crime fighter to the core," Almada said.
