MANHATTAN — Wednesday, Reno County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Morrell received the Silver Award for Life Saving at the 2022 Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police Valor Banquet held in Manhattan.
The award is for an incident in April of 2021 where Deputy Morrell was sent to the area of 56th and K-61 to check on a man walking down the middle of the highway. Deputy Morrell made contact with the man, who was intoxicated and immediately started making suicidal comments.
Deputy Morrell was able to move the man off to the shoulder of the road where they continued talking as traffic continued down the highway. While talking, Deputy Morrell noticed that the man looked away from him and focused on something coming down the road. Morrell noticed this change and keyed in on the fact that something was going to happen.
The man then started to run out into the roadway but was tackled by Deputy Morrell before he could run into the path of an oncoming semi truck. The man was then taken to a local hospital for an evaluation.