Officer Thomas Scharf II, a member of the Seymour Police Department since 1993, won the department’s Medal of Valor Wednesday during the department’s first awards ceremony.
Scharf distinguished himself through extraordinary courage in an extremely hazardous situation on Sept. 5, 2005, when he climbed over the railing of the Bank Street bridge and rescued a man who had hanged himself by the neck from a rope tied to the bridge, according to the awards committee.
Scharf hauled the man up by pulling on the rope, risking his own life by balancing himself on the outer lip of the bridge while he locked his other leg around the guardrail, according to the awards committee.
It was one of several awards Scharf won in the ceremony.
“We are all deserving of awards,” Scharf said in a brief interview backstage after receiving the top award. “It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” he said of the circumstances that transpired that night. He also won the Lifesaving Award for that service.
The awards ceremony was held at Seymour Middle School. More than 100 proud family members attended, to see their husbands, wives, sons and daughters receive a range of awards that included distinguished service and unit citations.
The second highest award of the night was the Combat Medal, given for excellent service in a dangerous combat situation, which went to Detective Louis Yustin, for police work in 1993, and to Sgt. Stephen M. Prajer, for a duty call of assistance from the Naugatuck Police Department in 2010.
Yustin had disarmed a wanted felon who had pointed a gun in his face.
Prajer fired on a despondent man who pointed a gun at him, then gave first aid to the wounded man, according to the awards committee.
Each officer’s story was read aloud from the stage as he or she stood before the crowd to accept the awards.
The third highest award of the night, Officer of the Year, also went to Yustin. He is a 30-year veteran of the department who has distinguished himself through exceptional performance of duties, according to the awards committee.
The awards night gave the Seymour Police Department a chance to formally express its gratitude to officers who go above and beyond the call of duty.
“We’ve wanted to do this for some time, there has been talk about it for years,” said Lt. Paul Satkowski, spokesman for the department.
The subject came up at Board of Police Commissioners meetings this year, and Chief Michael Metzler approved the awards ceremony, Satkowski said.
Here is a list of the people honored:
Citizen’s Award
Dr. Steven Brocklehurst, veterinarian, for providing care to the department’s canines at his own expense for the past 12 years.
Donald and Carol Fagan, for voluntarily donating $1,000 to purchase a ballistic vest for the department’s newest police dog, Raider.
Amanda Estwan, Jessica Martovich and Dayna Sheppard, for launching a “name the dog” contest that raised money to buy equipment for Raider.
Letter of Commendation
Sgt. David Parratt, for rescuing a man who plunged through ice into frigid water and was swept over the falls of the Naugatuck River in 2000.
Officer James Duda, for capturing a burglary suspect in 2005. Also, another Letter of Commendation was awarded to Duda for discovering the attempted theft of equipment from the Haynes concrete plant in 2008.
Officer Christopher Gilloren, who located and detained a sexual assault suspect in 2009.
Officer Michael Fappiano, for helping to provide emergency first aid to an injured motorcyclist in 2009.
Officer Jonathan Martin, who talked an armed and suicidal man down in 2010.
Military Service Award
Sgt. Stephen Prajer, U.S. Marine Corps
Officer Thomas Scharf, U.S. Air Force
Officer Meredith Shook, U.S. Army
Devoted Service Medal
Capt. Paul Beres
Detective Louis Yustin
Officer Paul Haluschak
Sgt. Richard Gittings
Detective Brian Anderson
Officer Brian Barrett
Sgt. William King
Officer John Cronin
Officer David Duke
Unit Citation
Sgt. John D’Antona (twice)
Detective Scott Nihill (twice)
Officer John Harkins
Officer Thomas Scharf II (twice)
Officer Todd Romagna
Sgt. David Parratt (twice)
Youth Officer Joseph DeNigris (twice)
Officer Kevin Miceli (three times)
Officer Michael Santanelli
Officer Joseph Matusovich (twice)
Lt. Paul Satkowski
Officer James Duda
Officer Christa Ventura (twice)
Sgt. Thomas Adams of the Shelton Police Department
Officer Michael McPadden of the Shelton Police Department
Detective Brian Anderson
Officer Richard Sprandel
Officer Dedrick Wilcox
Officer Donald Scheithe (twice)
Officer Christopher Gilloren
Sgt. Stephen M. Prajer
Distinguished Service Award
Officer Thomas Scharf II (three times)
Sgt. John D’Antona
Detective Scott Nihill (twice)
Sgt. Stephen M. Prajer (twice)
Officer Todd Romagna
Detective Louis Yustin
Sgt. Charles Sampson of the Waterbury Police Department
Sgt. William King
Life Saving Award
Sgt. Richard Gittings
Sgt. John D’Antona (twice)
Officer Thomas Scharf II (three times)
Detective Scott Nihill
Sgt. Stephen M. Prajer
Sgt. William King
Officer David Parratt
Officer Sergio Desiderato
Officer Kevin Miceli
Officer Joseph Matusovich
Officer Donald Scheithe
