An pressing word was taped to my laptop on the morning of Feb. 27, 1983, that learn: “MUST COVER! TROOPER MURDERED!”
Trooper George L. Hanna had been shot useless the night time earlier than whereas conducting a routine motorcar cease in Auburn. He left behind a spouse and three youngsters. His three killers — out to rob companies — had been sentenced to life with out parole.
The information hit Hanna’s Holliston neighborhood exhausting. The younger dad had arrange a mock Fenway Park Inexperienced Monster wall in his yard the place youngsters could possibly be heard shrieking with pleasure as they performed whiffle ball. One neighbor mentioned he had but to summon up the braveness to inform his youngster the trooper subsequent door was gone.
Our heroes aren’t imagined to die. Trooper Hanna was one in every of them and 177 others have stepped up since including to the Hanna Award Medal honor roll.
“Their stories,” mentioned Gov. Maura Healey Tuesday, “remind us of the immense bravery required on this (first-responder) career and the sacrifices officers and their households make to maintain our communities protected.”
This 12 months’s heroes
The 11 recipients of the award this 12 months embody:
Acushnet Officer Kevin Martins, regardless of being wounded, helped subdue a crazed gunman exterior the Bayside Lounge in Fairhaven in December of 2023.
Berlin Officer Molly Plante bumped into the “raining fire” of a home explosion to rescue somebody trapped within the rubble in April of 2023. She is now a Framingham police officer.
Oxford Officer Kenneth Mead Jr. confronted a sword-wielding suspect, capturing then saving the person.
Trooper Ryan Costello raced right into a raging river to seize a 2-year-old after a drunken-driving rollover in Clarksburg in April of 2023. The dad was arrested; the kid in a “blue onesie” later died.
Trooper William Munch confronted a suspect waving a knife who yelled: “Just kill me!” The person saved on coming with the trooper making an attempt to de-escalate in the end capturing him down with no different accidents to members of the family in Hancock in September of 2023.
Trooper Christopher Nee and Lakeville Officer Dakota Jones confronted a gunman who mentioned to the officer: “Kill or be killed.” That’s when Trooper Nee shouted: “Drop the gun!” Nee was off-duty and helped quell the showdown in of September 2023. Officer Jones is now Trooper Jones.
Boston Officer Christopher Kerrigan broke up the armed theft of a pizza supply man and was shot himself, by no means giving up with the suspect arrested in June of 2023.
Massport Officer Matthew J.T. Flynn on patrol in Piers Park, East Boston, stumbled on a girl leaping into the Harbor. He radioed his location then jumped into the freezing water in March of 2022, saving the girl.
Trooper Thomas Cusack and Trooper Gregory Santo, members of the MGM Springfield Gaming Enforcement Unit, tracked down a suspect who threatened to shoot a fellow on line casino participant who then turned on them, firing at “close range.” They returned fireplace mortally wounding the person.
