Officer Justin Brandt - Medal of Valor

Medal of Valor Recipient

In the early morning hours of July 22, 2012, Officer Brandt was on patrol. He began hearing gunfire and noticed a man armed with a pistol on a crowded sidewalk, a mere 20-30 feet away, shooting at another man. Officer Brandt exited his squad car, drew his sidearm, closed the distance to the gunman, and continually ordered the gunman to drop his weapon. The scene was loud and chaotic. A man yelled he had been shot. Another man came from out of the crowd and punched the gunman in the face. The gunman fell but still held the pistol. Officer Brandt, now upon the gunman in the crowd, kicked the gunman in the back. The gunman dropped the pistol and was placed in handcuffs by Officer Brandt. The large crowd now grew hostile toward the gunman. Officer Brandt picked the gunman up and sprinted him off to his squad car to protect the gunman from the unruly crowd. The time from when the first shot was fired until Officer Brandt deposited the gunman into the squad car for safety was a mere 51 seconds according to a recording of the incident captured by the squad car's video recorder.