Life saving bystanders, local mail sleuth awarded alongside officers at Bellevue Police Department ceremony

The award ceremony, which coincided with National Police Week, also saw five police officers given the Commander's Award for excellence on the job and four more given the department's Life Saving Award for their actions responding to life threatening medical crises.

A local man who aided police in two mail theft arrests was among three citizens honored alongside officers at a Bellevue Police award ceremony held at City Hall Wednesday night.

According to a police spokesperson, Patrick Hill installed an alarm on his mailbox last year after becoming the victim of mail theft. Since then, on Nov. 29 and Dec. 23, Hill called the police in response to alarms, enabling officers to arrest two separate suspects with large amounts of stolen mail in their cars. In the latter incident, the car being driven by the suspect was found to be stolen.

Police awarded Hill with a Citizen Law Enforcement Merit award.

That award was also given to Bruce Oberg and  Marianna Lalayev, both of whom administered CPR to unconscious bystanders until police or Bellevue Fire Department personnel could arrive on scene.

The award ceremony, which coincided with National Police Week, also saw five police officers given the Commander’s Award for excellence on the job and four more given the department’s Life Saving Award for their actions responding to life threatening medical crises.

The Commander’s Award was given to Corporal John Nourse for his work on the Mobile Identification Device pilot project, which deployed fingerprint identification in the field; Officer Chris Nygren for his work in the accident investigation unit, called “the most dependable member” that Lt. Marcia Harnden has come to rely on, as she wrote in her recommendation; Officer Alex Slusser for multiple areas of excellence, including “an uncanny ability” to remember details about criminal suspects and his ability to develop trust with people he meets on duty; Detective Jerry Johnson for his work solving a 1980 cold case homicide, the strangling of Susan Barbara Lowe; and Lt. Dave Sanabria for his leadership in the department’s motor unit.

The Life Saving Award was given to Lt. Andrew Popochock for administering defibrillation and CPR to an unresponsive person at the Wilburton Apartments; Ofc. Shannon Leahy for administering CPR to an unconscious person at the Lake Washington Kidney Center; Ofc. Rafael Park for administering CPR at the Landmark Apartments; and Ofc. Bill McGuigan for performing CPR on an unconscious man outside the Expedia building.

Park and McGuigan were the responding officers who took over CPR for awarded citizens Lalayev and Oberg, respectively.

The Bellevue City Council proclaimed its participation in National Police Week Monday night.