Las Vegas Police Officer Named 2000 Police Officer of the Year

Dennis Devitte Received Highest Honor in Law Enforcement for Risking His Life in Shootout with Armed Robbers; Ten Additional Officers Honored for Outstanding Service

New York, November 2— Dennis Devitte, a 20-year veteran of the Las Vegas Police Department who risked his life in a shootout with three armed robbers, has been named the 2000 Police Officer of the Year by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and PARADE Magazine.

The highest honor in law enforcement, the Police Officer of the Year Award, which is announced in this Sunday's issue of PARADE, will be presented to Officer Devitte, 42. Ten additional officers will receive honorable mention. The event will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 14, in San Diego during the 107th annual IACP Convention. All the award-winning officers will be featured Sunday evening at 10:00 EST in "Badge of Courage" on the Court TV cable network with actual footage from the shootout.

"Please tell my wife I love her," Devitte told Police Officer Curtis Wills, as he lay bleeding from eight wounds he received during the encounter. "I did the best I could. I hope I didn't hit anybody else."

"What Dennis did was the most courageous thing I've ever seen," Wills told PARADE. "He did it to save the others." Wills and several other police officers were present when the incident occurred early in the morning of December 5, 1999, in Mr. D's Sports Bar, where they had gone to hear Pigs in a Blanket, a musical group featuring police officers.

A little after 1 a.m., three armed robbers charged through the back door with guns drawn and their faces covered with T-shirts or bandannas. "I'd only been in the bar a short time and was talking to friends," Devitte recalled, "when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ruckus at the end of the bar.

Then one of the gunmen went right by me and shot a man in a wheelchair, hitting him in the shoulder. I only had my small .25-caliber off-duty gun, which isn't very accurate, so I knew I'd had to get really close before I could start shooting. Otherwise I might hit someone else."

The only officer in the bar who was armed, Devitte dug the handgun out of his pocket and started for 19-year-old Emilio Rodriguez, who was firing into the crowd with a .40 caliber semi-automatic. "I went straight at him as he turned and started firing at me," Devitte said. "He kept firing and hitting me, but I held my fire until I got to less than 18 inches from him."

The entire incident took just 20 seconds and was recorded on the bar's surveillance tape. Devitte shot Rodriguez eight times and finally fell as the gunman's last bullet blew his knee apart. Rodriguez stumbled out the front door, collapsed and died as the other two robbers fled.

"Dennis was bleeding from everywhere," said Mike Richards, a fellow officer who was playing in the band. "I yelled for towels. Then I tried to get Dennis' gun from him. Even though one bullet had blown his right hand apart and another had hit his right thumb, he wouldn't give it up. He told me there were still two more bad guys,"

Devitte needed six units of blood, and his knee had to be reconstructed with bone from a cadaver. Yet he was back on the job less than six months later. "I really like police work," he explained. "It's what I do. It's who I am."

Devitte will be introduced during the IACP General Assembly Tuesday morning in San Diego and will receive a plaque and a diamond-studded gold lapel pin from PARADEManaging Editor Larry Smith during a luncheon at noon.

The Police Officer of the Year Award is one of 11 Police Service Awards given annually by PARADE and the IACP to honor the bravery and dedication of the nation's 623,000 police officers. Ten honorable mentions, which are also announced in this Sunday's PARADE, will be awarded to the following:

• Officer Mark Beathard, 42, of the California Highway Patrol, for risking his life to save two young accident victims from a speeding vehicle headed straight toward them;
  
  
• Officer Julia Mae Burney, 49, of the Racine, Wis., Police Department, for developing the highly successful Cops 'N Kids Reading Center Program to help poor children break out of the cycle of poverty;
  
  
• Trooper John M. Hamilton, 40, of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, for arresting a perpetrator who had wounded him and another officer while they were attempting to serve him with a warrant;
  
  
• Officer Jeffrey Holland, 38, of the Omaha, Neb., Police Department, for capturing a bank robber while he was working off-duty even though he had been shot twice;
  
  
• Officer Joseph H. Shackett, 38, of the Houston, Tex., Police Department, for shooting and killing two robbers in a check-cashing store and saving the life of its owner;
  
  
• Sgt. Bruce K. Stayments, 39, of the Town of Elmira, N.Y., Police Department, for starting Dad's School, a partnership for responsible fathering that has been described as "an innovative and successful crime-prevention solution" by the National Fatherhood Initiative;
  
  
• Officers Jaime, 33, Ernesto, 30, and Victor, 33, Trevino of the San Antonio, Tex., Police Department for attempting to rescue three wounded officers, all of whom died at the scene, then locating and attacking the sniper, who killed himself;
  
  
• Officer Richard Vogt, 44, of the Egg Harbor, N.J., Police Department, for rescuing an 18-year-old-girl in a runaway car just before it reached a busy intersection.

Established in 1966 by PARADE and the IACP to focus attention on the dedicated men and women of our nation's police force, the Police Service Awards are given for specific acts of valor, as in the case of this year's top winner, for consistent service above and beyond the call of duty, for the development of innovative programs in connection with police work, and for significant service to the community apart from police work.