Officers honored for saving alleged burglars

Have you ever thought about what you would do for a stranger in a life-threatening situation? Would you risk injury or death to save someone else? Would there be a different answer if it were a child vs. an elderly person? Typically, we believe police officers and firefighters, Secret Service agents and others in uniform would act immediately to try to save innocent lives.

But imagine for a minute what you might be willing to do for a man and woman in a life-threatening situation who had just robbed a house. Consider whether you would risk your life to save the life of two people who had crashed after evading officers and driving at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour on narrow and curvy county roads. Would you try to save the life of a man and/or woman in such a scenario if you didn't know whether they were armed? Think quickly. The truck is on fire. They are trapped. You've got a family at home. What do you do?

"You can't just let them die," officer Robert Newton told Southeast Missourian reporter Ben Kleine in a recent interview. " ... I feel like any other officer would do the same thing."

Newton, along with officers David Templeton, Gabriel Yoder and Shaun Alsdorf were recently recognized by the Cape Girardeau City Council for their heroic efforts in saving the lives of two burglary suspects who crashed their U-Haul pickup truck after a high-speed chase. Police believe the couple were serial burglars, having disconnected the electricity in the same way as other recent local burglaries.

Newton, the first to arrive at the scene, made a split-second decision once he saw the fire to save these suspects as their truck caught fire. He disregarded his training in doing so. Protocol demands keeping a distance when chases end abruptly, for fear of taking on gunfire.

If a person can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends, then what are we to make of this act?

These officers demonstrated nearly unfathomable bravery in this circumstance. We would all like to think we would help someone when faced with a life-threatening circumstance. These officers were faced with a high-stakes, dangerous situation and acted with total selflessness.

These officers are courageous men. We salute their bravery and their instincts to protect the life, even that of suspected criminals.