State officers get awards for valor.
11 trooper honors handed out
Arkansas State Police honored several personnel at the agency’s annual awards ceremony June 29 for valor, lifesaving and service.
Cpl. Chet White, 44, of Saline County received the Arkansas State Trooper of the Year Award from Bill Bryant, Director of the Arkansas State Police, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, according to a release from the agency.
White’s heroics that earned him the award date back to a July 18 distress call when, while off duty, the 22-year veteran responded to a unconscious 12-year-old pinned underneath an overturned off-road utility vehicle.
After assessing that the girl was not breathing, White lifted the 1,800-pound vehicle, allowing two children who were with the victim to drag her from underneath the vehicle.
White continued administering CPR as the girl was revived but stopped breathing twice while awaiting helicopter transport to the hospital.
The child survived her injuries after 10 days of medical treatment, with White receiving credit for her survival.
Trooper James Ray, 24, of Franklin County, received a medal of valor and National Trooper of the Year recognition previously announced by the American Association of State Troopers.
Both awards were the result of his actions during an extended Interstate 40 chase in December near Ozark, in which a suspect was driving at speeds considered dangerous to other drivers near Ozark in December 2020.
Ray, while in pursuit, performed a PIT maneuver on the suspect, but the driver was able to regain control of his vehicle and flee in the opposite direction of traffic.
Running out of options to stop the suspect and fearing danger to other drivers on the roadway, Ray lined himself up in the path of the driver, who crossed the median to drive towards Ray, and crashed his patrol vehicle into the suspect’s vehicle to end the pursuit.
Two additional troopers, 46-year-old Cpl. Steven Maness of Pope County and 29-year-old Trooper First Class Destin Linkous of Conway County received the final two medals of valor awards for heroic act0ions on January 21, 2020, after being ambushed by a suspect.
Maness and Linkous came under gunfire as they approached a shed in Pope County where they thought a suspect who earlier fired on the Atkins Police chief was inside, and engaged in an hour-long gunfight from their disadvantageous position while preventing the suspect from gaining access to a residential neighborhood.
The suspect later died during the gunfight.
Van Buren County Trooper Brady Nuckels, 25, received the lifesaving award for helping a man who overdosed on Oxycontin tablets before entering a convenience store in Van Buren County.
Nuckels quickly assessed the victim’s situation on April 12, 2020 and administered Narcan as they awaited an ambulance.
Crittenden County Troopers Donnie Cheers, 39, and Mason Marrone, 30, were awarded a lifesaving award for saving a truck driver involved in a crash on Interstate 55 near West Memphis.
After arriving on the scene, the troopers exhausted their own fire extinguishers and at least eight more to prevent the fire from engulfing the truck of a man involved in an accident on October 1, 2020.
Cpl. Andrew Ault, 34, of Garland County and Cpl. Eric Wold, 40, of Sebastian County received the Trooper’s Cross for their roles in a 12-hour stand-off with a suspect in St. Francis County who was threatening to kill any officers trying to arrest him.
On May 18, 2020, Wold exchanged gunfire with the suspect forcing him to retreat into the house, and Ault incapacitated the suspect as he attempted to flee out of the back of the residence.
Sgt. Marcus Daniels, 39, of Pulaski County received the Trooper’s Cross for apprehending a man who had earlier stabbed an Arkansas Highway Patrol officer.
Daniels incapacitated the suspect near Interstate 30 and Roosevelt Road as the suspect moved towards him with a sharp weapon, ignoring order to drop it.
Charles Ed Dukes of Swifton accepted a Memorial Medal on behalf of his father, Charles Allison Dukes, a former state police telecommunications operator who died in 1954 from injuries sustained during a vehicle accident while directing traffic.