{"id":225259,"date":"2026-06-22T21:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225259\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:24:14","slug":"local-troopers-receive-pennsylvania-state-police-purple-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225259\/","title":{"rendered":"Local troopers receive Pennsylvania State Police Purple Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two state troopers \u2014 seriously injured after responding to a call in Susquehanna County in August \u2014 were honored for their heroism Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Perechinsky and William Jenkins, both of Troop R, Gibson, were awarded the Pennsylvania State Police Purple Heart during a ceremony at Bishop McDevitt High School in Lower Paxton Twp. for injuries sustained in the line of duty.<\/p>\n<p>After 61-year-old Carmine Faino shot and killed his neighbor, 57-year-old Lori Wasko, outside her home in Thompson Twp. on Aug. 7, he ambushed Perechinsky and Jenkins with rounds of gunfire from a high-powered rifle from a distance. Their police vehicle was also riddled with bullet holes. Faino was shot and killed by responding police after refusing to comply with commands.<\/p>\n<p>Perechinsky was shot twice in the chest\/torso area and Jenkins was shot twice, once in each arm. Despite his injuries, Perechinsky managed to apply tourniquets to his partner\u2019s arms before a third trooper evacuated them from the scene. He also commandeered a passing tractor-trailer and directed the driver to pull the rig across the road to block others from danger.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Lieutenant Colonel George L. Bivens presented Trooper William K. Jenkins III of Troop R, Gibson, with the Pennsylvania State Police Purple Heart on Monday, June 22, 2026, for injuries sustained in the line of duty. (Courtesy Pennsylvania State Police)\" width=\"1200\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STT-L-TROOPERS-1-0624.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1836580\" \/>Lieutenant Colonel George L. Bivens presented Trooper William K. Jenkins III of Troop R, Gibson, with the Pennsylvania State Police Purple Heart on Monday, June 22, 2026, for injuries sustained in the line of duty. (Courtesy Pennsylvania State Police)<\/p>\n<p>Perechinsky, a trooper for six years at the time of the attack, is the son of Mayfield borough Police Chief Joseph Perechinsky Sr. and the brother of Archbald borough Patrolman Edward Perechinsky.<\/p>\n<p>Jenkins, a trooper for 10 years, is married and the father of four.<\/p>\n<p>Although they suffered substantial injuries, both men moved to cover, rendered aid to one another, and directed responding law enforcement and personnel into tactically advantageous positions to help protect them on the scene and prevent further tragedy, state police officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Josh Shapiro called Perechinsky \u201ca real hero,\u201d noting he acted decisively and thoughtfully in the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Both troopers graduated from Lakeland High School \u2014 Jenkins in 2007 and Perechinsky in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two state troopers \u2014 seriously injured after responding to a call in Susquehanna County in August \u2014 were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[201,182,139,28,30,29,2942,181],"class_list":["post-225259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-susquehanna-county","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}