Eight Missouri Law Officers Awarded Medal of Valor

Intro:	(For use by KMOX only) Three St. Louis area cops were awarded Missouri Valor Medals by Governor Jay Nixon. Among them were Patrolman Mathew Crosby and Lieutenant Jorden Lewis.
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Wrap: For Crosby and Lewis it was just another domestic violence call.

But they arrived at the Rock Hill apartment complex last April to find a gunman in the stairway, threatening to kill them.

The suspect shot at Crosby twice ... one bullet grazed his head and the other punctured his shoulder.

The father of three is now paralyzed from the chest down.

For Lewis, receiving the honor reminded him his work doesn't go without appreciation.

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Description: "Usually the people we deal with nobody really cares. That's what you think and after having 40, 41 years in you I think, nobody cares. But they do."

Also there to receive a medal was St. Louis officer Joseph Haman who was shot more than half a dozen times during a traffic stop in May 2010.

From the state Capitol, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Newsradio 1120 KMOX.

Intro:	(For use by KMOX only) Three St. Louis area cops received Missouri Medals of Valor from Governor Jay Nixon, including officer Joseph Haman.
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Wrap: Then twenty-six year old Haman had been only been on the force for about two years.

He pulled over a suspicious vehicle during a routine traffic stop in May 2010.

And a passenger in the car shot at him more than half a dozen times... seriously wounding him.

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Description: "You don't really think about it and once everything happened it was just reacting. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just trying to take out the situation and save my life."

Haman said the best part of receiving the honor was hearing the stories of the other officers at the ceremony.

Nixon also handed Medals of Valor to Rock Hill officers Mathew Crosby and Jorden Lewis.

From the state Capitol, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Newsradio 1120 KMOX.

Intro:	Missouri Governor Jay Nixon presented Medals of Valor to eight members of law enforcement for their heroic actions.
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Wrap: One climbed into a burning vehicle to rescue trapped passengers.

Another swam through a dangerous river current to keep a woman from drowning.

And another survived being shot more than half a dozen times.

Nixon said these officers put their own lives at risk to protect their fellow Missourians.

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Description: "These are true heroes in every sense of the word. If you ask any of them about what they did, I'm certain they would say I was just doing my job."

The Medal of Valor is awarded annually by the state's governor to firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency personnel.

From the state Capitol, I'm Elizabeth Hagedorn, Newsradio 1120 KMOX.