On Tuesday in Craig City Council Chambers, Police Chief Michael Cochran presented Officer Wacie Laabs with an award for Laabs’ life-saving actions on May 13.

Chief Cochran presented the award in front of Craig City Council and Mayor Ryan Hess.

Cochran shared from an email that CPD Sgt. Nate Businger sent on May 14.

Officer Laabs and Officer Businger were notified of a person down on East 7th Street, and the two officers were the first to arrive on scene.

When they got there, the officers were met by a frantic young man saying his father was unresponsive. When the officers went inside, the man was unresponsive. Officers immediately administered narcan, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, but the man was blue and remained unresponsive.

According to Businger, Laabs recognized the man who was unresponsive was in a confined area and needed to be moved to a larger space in order to administer life-saving measures. Officer Laabs moved the man quickly to a larger room and began performing CPR.

The man was blue in color and not breathing. While Officer Laabs was administering CPR, Officer Businger attached an AED unit and was advised not to administer a shock. By the time EMS arrived, the man was breathing again and had a heartbeat, thanks to the CPR performed by Officer Laabs.

“Those are things that in this line of work, you don’t see often,” Chief Cochran said. “Many times we are too late to do anything, so when we get an occasion where we do see something where somebody is able to intervene and save a life that otherwise would have been lost, we like to recognize it.”

Officer Laabs received the life-saving award from the Craig Police Department for outstanding performance in saving a life. Cochran noted that Officer Laabs’ display of conspicuous initiative, capability and attention to duty proved to be unmeasurable.