{"id":369351,"date":"2026-06-21T18:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369351\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T18:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T18:10:10","slug":"local-chp-officers-honored-for-valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369351\/","title":{"rendered":"Local CHP officers honored for valor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10p1.jpg\" data-slb-active=\"1\" data-slb-asset=\"956277391\" data-slb-internal=\"0\" data-slb-group=\"125561\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-125565\" class=\"wp-image-125565 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/10p1.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a0\" width=\"806\"   loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-125565\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two Moorpark-area California High\u00adway Patrol officers were among seven state employees honored June 12 in Sacramento with the Governor\u2019s State Employee Medal of Valor for rescuing a woman who tried to end her life on a freeway overpass in Simi Valley.\n<\/p>\n<p>Retired Sgt. Brian DeNike and Officer Alex Salazar received the Silver Medal of Valor for the Dec. 17, 2024, incident on an overpass above the 118 freeway. CHP said the officers responded after reports that a woman was threatening to jump during a mental health crisis.\n<\/p>\n<p>While officers spoke with her, she climbed over the railing and was left hanging by her hands from the overpass. DeNike and Salazar immediately rushed forward, grabbed her arms and pulled her to safety moments before she lost her grip, preventing serious injury or death.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese officers exemplify the very best of the California Highway Patrol,\u201d California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin said during a ceremony at the CHP Academy. \u201cThe actions recognized today reflect extraordinary courage and commitment to public safety.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>The awards, established in 1959, <\/p>\n<p>California public employees who perform extraordinary acts of heroism. Since then, more than 800 state work\u00aders\u2014 including more than 300 CHP officers\u2014have received the medal.\n<\/p>\n<p>CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said the honorees acted far beyond the call of duty.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day, CHP officers answer the call to serve, often under the most chal\u00adlenging and dangerous circumstances,\u201d Duryee said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Along with the Moorpark-area offi\u00adcers, five others were honored for sepa\u00adrate incidents across the state.\n<\/p>\n<p>Officers Jovanniray Alvarez and Jaf\u00adfrey Phillips of the Baldwin Park area received the Gold Medal of Valor for stopping a wrong-way driver on Inter\u00adstate 10. Bakersfield-area Officer Rodney Black received the Gold Medal of Valor for preventing a collision during a DUI checkpoint operation.\n<\/p>\n<p>Santa Maria-area Officer Brian Han\u00adrahan was honored for stopping a suspect after an explosion at the Santa Maria Superior Courthouse. Oroville-area Of\u00adficer Paul Vue received the Gold Medal of Valor for providing lifesaving aid to two shooting victims.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Two Moorpark-area California High\u00adway Patrol officers were among seven state employees honored June 12 in Sacramento with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-369351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}