An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer received the highest national valor award in a White House ceremony Wednesday.
Vice President Joseph Biden presented the Medal of Valor to wildlife officer Michael Neal and 17 other police officers, firefightersand public safety officers Wednesday. In 2010, Neal rammed his department truck into a van during a firefight with two gunmen who had killed twoWest Memphis police officers.
Neal wasn’t reached for comment in Washington on Wednesday.
In talking with the commission in May, Neal said it had been “a very humbling experience.”
“I never dreamed that anything like this could happen - and to me. It’s somethingwe train for and something that we’re ready for, but you never know, when the time comes, how you’ll react.”
On May 20, 2010, Jerry Kane, 45, and his son, Joseph Kane, 16, killed West Memphis police Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and officer Bill Evans, 38, during a traffic stop on Interstate 40. Authorities immediately began a manhunt for the father and son.
Neal told the West Little Rock Rotary Club in 2011 that he hadn’t known what had happened until he called an Arkansas State Police friend, who briefed him on the shooting. Neal then strapped on heavy armor, loaded his Bushmaster M4 .223-caliber rifle and called his wife before he made his way from Brinkley to West Memphis.
Just before 12:45 p.m. that day, the gunmen made their way to a Wal-Mart parking lot, where Joseph Kane entered the store and left with a bag in his hand, store footage showed. The Kanes had removed the license plates from the van and began to leave the parking lot when then-Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Deputy W.A. Wren stopped the vehicle, the footage showed.
As Busby and Wren approached the van, the Kanes opened fire - Joseph with an AK-47 and Jerry with a .40-caliber gun. The sheriff and his chief deputy were struck in the gunfire.
Jerry Kane began backingup the van to get away when Neal, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his rifle, rammed his truck into the van to stop it.
A couple of shots later, Jerry Kane died.
Joseph Kane continued to fire with his rifle, and Neal returned fire as he laid across the front seat.
When Neal ran out of ammunition, he put the truck in reverse to get away as other officers continued the gunfight.
Altogether, 11 law enforcement officers and a retired state police captain fired at the Kanes, killing both.
Investigators later learned that the Kanes had previously held anti-government “sovereign citizen” seminars nationwide and online and that Joseph Kane had talked about killing law-enforcement officers.
Neal has received more than two dozen awards since the shootout.
“We are very proud of Michael and appreciate the administration’s acknowledgment of his bravery and the valor he displayed in this incident,” the commission’s chief of enforcement, Jeff Crow, said in a statement. “His extraordinary service is a testament to the dedication of all those who serve in law enforcement in the State of Arkansas.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, DArk., said in a statement thatNeal showed “extraordinary bravery when he put his life on the line.”
“He is a true hero, and I can think of no one more deserving of this great honor.” he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/21/2013