Lacey officers honored for helping man who shot himself, freeing 2 from burning car
Two Lacey Police officers have been honored for life-saving acts in 2020 and 2021.
The efforts of Officers Al Stanford and Caelan Braniff were recognized at Thursday night’s City Council meeting by Chief Robert Almada, who explained why they deserved the awards.
About 6 p.m., Nov. 21, 2020, Lacey police were dispatched to the scene where a man had accidentally shot himself in the thigh while cleaning his pistol. Almada said the man had begun to lose consciousness because of severe blood loss.
Cpl. Stanford applied a tourniquet to the man’s leg to stop the bleeding. Medical staff said later that the man would not have survived his injury without Stanford’s help.
“A really big part of what we do is make sure our officers have tourniquets, know how to use them, how to apply emergency aid and Al certainly saved a life that day,” Almada said.
The following year, Officer Braniff was called on in a dangerous situation.
About 1:15 a.m. Oct. 17, 2021, Lacey police were dispatched to the 2900 block of Carpenter Road where a vehicle had crashed into a concrete wall and burst into flames. The driver and a passenger were still inside the burning vehicle.
Braniff smashed out the driver-side window with his baton, but still couldn’t get the vehicle door open. According to Almada, he then physically pried open the door to first rescue the driver and then the passenger before the vehicle was engulfed in flames.
Witnesses and fire crews at the scene said without Braniff’s actions, the two inside the car would not have survived, according to Almada.
“If you haven’t met Officer Braniff, a heart of gold and a crime fighter to the core,” Almada said.
This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 5:15 AM.
