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Fresno Police Officers Honored for Heroic Duty

By: Ashley Ritchie

For Fresno Police Officer Junus Perry, getting to this point hasn't been easy.

"It's nice to see everything we've gone through hasn't been in vain. So we feel very good about it, very good," Officer Perry said.

It was April 16th of this year. Perry was working as the school resource officer at Roosevelt High School when he was suddenly attacked by a student and forced to make one of the toughest decisions of his life.

"Officer Perry fired a single round at the subject striking his left-shoulder area," the announcer said at Thursday's ceremony.

That subject, 17-year-old Jesus Carizzales, died. After nearly seven-months of questions surrounding Perry's decision, the officer says this award is re-affirming.

"It means there are numerous individuals wearing uniforms exactly like this one that are standing beside me. It means there are family members standing beside me. And it also means there are friends standing beside me," Officer Perry said.

"The job of a police officer today is the most dangerous and most difficult job known to mankind," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

All-together 23 police officers received awards Thursday. But Dyer says the impact they made extends far beyond that.

"There are countless people that are alive today, all the way from infants to the elderly, and each and every one of those individuals that are alive today is because of these heroic efforts of these officers," Dyer said.

"The award was for basically, what I would like to consider, doing my job," Perry said.

But as Officer Perry knows all too well, sometimes that job isn't so easy.

Perry received the Harry Van Meter Medal of Honor, which was named after the first Fresno police officer killed in the line of duty back in 1907.

Chief Dyer says the department likes to recognize its officers as much as possible with ceremonies like this because they put their lives on the line every day.