LAPD Honors 18 Officers for Valor Under Fire

Eighteen police officers who performed extraordinary acts of courage under gunfire received the Los Angeles Police Department’s highest award for bravery, the Medal of Valor, in a ceremony Wednesday.

Among those honored at the Regal Biltmore Hotel was Officer Rex Yap, 29, who was shot in the face by a gang member in January 1997. Yap and his partner, Officer James Edwards, 33, had stopped to question gang members who were spray-painting a wall in Highland Park. One of the youths drew a .38-caliber handgun and shot Yap through the windshield of their unmarked car.

Slowed by the thick glass, the bullet entered Yap’s left nostril, traveled through his nasal cavity, and landed in his mouth. Yap spit the bullet out.

“I thought I’d been hit in the teeth,” he said. “I thought I was spitting out a tooth.”

Bleeding profusely, Yap rolled from the car and returned fire to cover his partner, Edwards. He then collapsed behind a telephone pole, where he had sought refuge.

Returning fire, Edwards came to Yap’s aid. Lifting his 6-foot-3, 225-pound partner in his arms, Edwards carried Yap to safety.

“I thought he was dead,” Edwards said. “There was so much blood. I was wearing a Michigan sweatshirt, and afterward, you couldn’t even see the letters because it was covered in so much of his blood. It was only by the grace of God that he lived.”

Edwards also received the Medal of Valor.

Privately congratulating the two medal winners before the ceremony, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks told them, “Both of you are alive today because you took care of each other.”

Parks said that Yap, Edwards, and the other medal winners displayed the bravery possessed by all the members of the LAPD.

“These officers were involved in a unique set of circumstances,” he said. “I believe every officer on the force would act just as bravely if faced with similar circumstances.”

Two other groups of officers were honored for separate incidents.

In May 1997, 14 officers confronted a domestic violence suspect holed up in a warehouse in Canoga Park. The man had already ambushed two Glendale detectives, killing one of them. Braving the man’s highly accurate gunfire, the police team entered the warehouse to rescue the fatally injured detective. Two members of the rescue party, Officers Jude Bella and Kevin Foster, were shot multiple times before the gunman shot himself.

Another of the rescuers, Officer Ryan Clark, 26, will be honored by President Clinton in October with a Top Cop award, given to 10 officers each year. Others honored for their bravery in the rescue effort were LAPD Officers Joseph Kalyn, Chris Dunn, Andrew Azodi, Craig Hewitt, Chris Yzaguirre, John Constable, Louis Villalobos, James Veenstra, Ossie Crenshaw, Bruce Hunt and David Rodriguez.

Officers Jack Parker and Debra Fairchild were honored for an April 1995 incident in Van Nuys in which they pursued a suspect in a bar shooting. Fleeing in a car and then running away, the man shot at the officers more than 25 times before discarding his gun.