Norwalk officers earn Medal of Merit

NORWALK — Three Norwalk police officers were awarded the Medal of Merit at Tuesday's city council meeting. Sgt. Tom Cook, Det. Sgt. David Daniels and officer Andrew Hemenway were awarded for going above and beyond their duties on a Sept. 6 call. Norwalk police Chief Mike Conney said the officers performed their duties in a manner that "clearly exceeds what is normally required or expected by their actions individually and collectively." At 1 a.m. on Sept. 6, the three officers were dispatched to a report of a man screaming he was going to kill someone behind an East Main Street residence. The man, later learned to have been consuming alcoholic beverages and to be suffering from suspected mental health issues, was still screaming when Cook and Daniels approached the backyard on foot. Upon seeing the officers, the man, armed with a steel fire poker, raised the poker over his head and allegedly made a death threat against the officers. "Before the man could make good on his threat, Cook rapidly deployed his taser, striking the man in his upper left side and below his waist, incapacitating him," Conney said of the incident. Cook and Daniels, with the aid of Hemenway, were able to secure the man in handcuffs after a brief struggle. "Sergeants Cook and Daniels, based upon the facts and circumstances facing them, would have been completely justified in a firearms response to the suspect's threatening actions toward them," Conney said. "Each of them maintained courageous calm in the face of danger, displaying a very high stand of professional performance and placed the welfare of their potential attacker above their own, sparing him the potential loss of his life." Conney said all three responding officers behaved in a manner that upholds the highest standards of conduct expected of a Norwalk police officer. "I'm extremely grateful, I'm extremely proud of these three. They did exactly what they were trained to do and exactly what their heart led them to do," he said. "They are truly servants of this city and we're blessed to have them."