By NICK GOSNELL and ROB DREHER
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Thursday marked five years since the mass shooting event at Excel Industries in Hesston where Cedric Ford shot seventeen people, killing three.
Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder declined to comment for this story, but his efforts on that day in 2016 were what ultimately stopped Ford. Schroeder shot and killed Ford in the line of duty.
Robb Reeves owned the local newspaper, the Hesston Record, at the time.
"You go through it and you just want to put it behind you," Reeves said. "At the same time, we have to remember what happened. Some people lost their lives. It was a tough day for Hesston. You can't just forget it."
The events happened in the late afternoon, shortly after Reeves and his staff had put the weekly paper to bed.
"It was a quarter of a mile from our office, half a mile and it was still going on," Reeves said when his editor at the time, Jackie Nelson, who still writes for the paper under its current ownership, made it to Excel. "I think she saw some bad things there, tough things to see. I checked our old Twitter account and her first report was at 5:22 p.m. that day."
Schroeder was honored for his service at the White House in 2018.
"I have in my office the edition where Donald Trump is putting a medal around Doug's neck," Reeves said. "He received the Presidential Medal of Valor. The man's a true hero. He won't promote himself or anything, that's just the kind of guy he is, but he's a real hero."
Before the establishment of the Medal of Valor in 2000, there were no Federal awards to specifically acknowledge the bravery performed by public safety officers throughout the United States.
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