INCREDIBLE COURAGE
EPS Const. Mike Chernyk, centre, received a medal for bravery Monday for fighting off an attacker who struck him with a car and attacked him with a knife on Sept. 30, 2017. He is shown with Chief Rod Knecht and Lt.-Gov. Lois E. Mitchell.
An Alberta man injured last year during one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history was honoured for his bravery during a ceremony in Edmonton Monday.
Stephen Arruda, who was shot in the leg during the Oct. 1, 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, was given a silver medal for bravery by the Royal Canadian Humane Association during a ceremony at Edmonton police headquarters.
The shooting left 58 people dead and nearly 900 injured.
During the chaos, Arruda hoisted a number of panicked concert goers over a fence to safety, which “undoubtedly saved several lives,” the humane association stated.
Arruda was shot in the leg and suffered nerve damage.
He said Monday was the first time since the incident he’s walked without the aid of an orthotic brace.
“I got a bit emotional to begin with,” the Calgary resident said. “For someone else to address what happened … (and) this is my first time actually walking without any brace on or anything. It’s the first day it’s happened in over a year.
“Once I found out I was getting an award, I thought I just want to make that the day I’d try and walk without any assistance,” he said.
More than a dozen Albertans, including first responders and regular citizens, were honoured Monday.
Along with Arruda, Edmonton police Const. Mike Chernyk received a silver medal for bravery for fighting off an attacker who struck him with a car and attacked him with a knife outside a football game on Sept. 30, 2017. The association said Chernyk bravely protected his gun, preventing the attack from turning deadly.
Also honoured were Thomas O’Leary, who jumped in to help when a combative man wandering in traffic attacked a city police officer, twice trying to gouge her eyes out with his thumbs.
O’Leary received the bronze medal for bravery as a result of his intervention. The officer suffered trauma to her eyes, headaches and two black eyes.
Paul Coates was awarded a bronze medal for helping two city police officers Jan. 6 who arrested an intoxicated man outside a home for breaching his conditions.
Willis Gunderson and Adam Sawaryn took home bronze medals as well, in this case for saving a city cab driver under attack during the night of April 19.
A man in the back seat of the cab had asked to be driven to a bank and then a friend’s place, but when the driver realized the man had no money, he was told by his dispatcher to go to a police station.
On the way, the man lunged forward with a hunting knife, attempting to cut the driver’s neck. But the victim shifted enough to suffer only a laceration below his right ear.
Gunderson and Sawaryn saw the cab screech to a halt and the battle inside. The driver yelled for help and warned that the man had a knife. The pair called police then ran to the cab. When Sawaryn saw the knife on the floor, he threw it into a treed area. The pair then held the man until police arrived. The man was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault.