Grosse Pointe Woods officers honored for saving lives, arresting dangerous suspects

GROSSE POINTE WOODS — Grosse Pointe Woods has many reasons to be grateful for its Public Safety Department, but on May 20, department and city officials recognized at least three instances in which officers exceeded the high expectations set for them.

In front of the Woods City Council, Public Safety Director John Kosanke distributed awards to five officers for going above and beyond the call of duty in 2022 and 2023.

Mayor Arthur Bryant called it “a very happy event” as city leaders, family and friends of the officers got to see them recognized publicly.

Sgt. Walter Galat was given a lifesaving award for responding to The Rivers — an independent and assisted senior living complex — on Feb. 24, 2022, to attend to a 78-year-old man who wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. Galat was on the scene with officers David Empson, Martin Mitchell and Jarod Smith, Kosanke said. The officers immediately started CPR on the victim; CPR was continued by paramedics from Medstar upon their arrival.

“After 20 minutes of lifesaving efforts by both teams, the patient regained his pulse and was able to breathe on his own,” Kosanke said. “Upon arrival at Ascension St. John Hospital, the patient was conscious and alert.”

For their work pursuing and apprehending two armed robbery suspects, Sgt. Joseph Provost, Detective Ryan Schroerlucke and officer Dennis Walker received a department commendation. Police responded to a report of a bank robbery the afternoon of March 3, 2023, Kosanke said. He said the suspects ignored stop signs as they sped through residential areas in Harper Woods and Detroit. Working with neighboring departments, Grosse Pointe Woods officers were able to arrest the suspects without incident, Kosanke said.

“It was determined after the arrests that the two suspects were also involved in three other bank robberies in the area,” Kosanke said. “Your actions showed courage in a dangerous situation.”

He said the suspects were charged with multiple felonies, including bank robbery and carrying concealed weapons.

Officer Eugene Gunnery was honored with a lifesaving award for saving the life of a newborn. In the early morning hours of Oct. 1, 2023, Gunnery, Galat and Smith were called to a home where a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy was said to be vomiting, bleeding and going into cold sweats. The woman’s husband led Gunnery to the bedroom, where the woman told Gunnery the baby was coming. Before Gunnery could prepare, the baby was born on a towel on the floor. Gunnery took a second towel from a nearby bathroom to wrap the infant, but he then noticed that the newborn wasn’t moving or breathing and was starting to turn blue. Kosanke said Gunnery rubbed the infant’s chest to try to get the infant to breathe. He asked Smith to look for something that could be used to suction fluids away from the infant’s mouth and Smith found a turkey baster that Gunnery was able to use. Medstar then arrived and took over medical care before taking the mother and her baby to the hospital, both of whom are now fine.

“The baby is home and doing well,” Kosanke said.

City Councilwoman Vicki Granger said the funding for the Public Safety Department is a prime example of how important the budget is, noting the lifesaving event involving the baby.

“We save lives from birth to septuagenarians and beyond,” Granger said.

Kosanke said other officers in the department are slated to receive awards at a later date; they weren’t able to attend the May 20 meeting. The date for the additional awards ceremony hadn’t been set at press time.