Mokena officials honor three police officers for their efforts in rescuing man involved in vehicular accident
MOKENA, Ill. — Three members of the Mokena Police Department were honored with Distinguished Duty Awards Monday, May 9, during the Village Board of Trustees meeting.
Sgt. Robert Miller and officers Lawrence McKenna and Robert Henschel were recognized for “their diligence, perseverance and prompt action in the rescue of an adult male subject who had sustained a previous brain injury,” Interim Police Chief Brian Benton said during the meeting.
On April 1, Benton said officers were called to the 11700 block of 187th Street in regard to a vehicle that had struck a mailbox and drove off into a ditch. While investigating, officers heard from a witness who had seen the driver exit the vehicle and “slow stumble north into a heavily wooded field toward I-80.”
Benton said that Henschel checked on the vehicle’s registration while other officers conducted a search of the area. During that time, Henschel learned that the driver had sustained a previous brain injury and experienced memory loss and cognitive delays.
“Believing that there was a missing injured person in the woods, officers requested [K-9 assistance from] the Will County Sheriff’s Department,” Benton said. “At the same time, Sgt. Miller launched a drone for an overhead search. Through the use of the drone’s infrared camera, a heat source was located … several hundred feet into the thick brush.”
Benton said McKenna and Henschel were guided to the area where the heat signature was found, and they located the subject “laying down in the thicket, incoherent, with no recollection of the crash, and did not seem to be aware of what was happening.”
The man was treated by emergency personnel before being transported to the hospital.
“That night, temperatures were dropping into the low 30s,” Benton said. “Honestly, these officers could be receiving a life-saving award here tonight. They did some outstanding work through the use of the drones, a piece of equipment that we just bought last year and has already proved itself significant multiple times over.”
Henschel was unable to attend the May 9 meeting, but Miller and McKenna were present.
“There’s a lot of things that we do every day that we could potentially get awards for, but we don’t,” McKenna said during his comments to the board members. “This is nice to have recognition for this, but we were just doing our job out there.”
Miller called it a “team effort, utilizing the resources that the Village Board has been gracious enough to allow us to purchase.” He added that the infrared feature on the drone was “instrumental” in locating the subject.
“There is no way that our officers would have been able to see this individual on the ground with the thicket,” Miller said. “With this, I saw him walking toward I-80. Fortunately, we were able to find him, bring him out to safety and get him the aid that he needed.”
Trustee George Metanias, who was serving as mayor pro-tem during the meeting because of Mayor Frank Fleischer’s absence, said McKenna was right.
“You guys do a lot every day,” Metanias said. “It is not that you do not get noticed by us, but you don’t get recognized like you should. I’ve always said that I think we have the best policemen anywhere around. You guys do a fantastic job. If we don’t give you enough credit, I apologize. You deserve all the credit in the world.”
Metanias said the board is “100% behind you.”
“We will do everything we can to make your lives easier with anything you might need,” he said.