Unsung Hero Award
Officer James McCarthy
Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department Officers James McCarthy and Kim Delosh were on routine patrol working their first shift as partners, so tactics and safety procedures were discussed between them. It was relatively quiet as they drove to an area of Harbor Division known as “Ghost Town.” Officer McCarthy had received information from a Narcotics Officer that a search warrant had been served on a residence within the past week that yielded large quantities of crystal methamphetamine and guns, including AK-47s.
Officer McCarthy positioned his patrol unit so they could observe any narcotics activity at the front of the house. Within a short period of time, a white truck stopped in the street in front of the house and a man w ho had been standing on the sidewalk approached. Both officers observed what appeared to them to be a narcotics transaction in progress.
As Officer McCarthy drove up behind the truck, it quickly sped away. They followed the vehicle attempting to check the status of the truck, which displayed Arizona license plates.
As the suspect sped through the area, he passed a church where children and adults were walking and collided with another vehicle. The suspect did not slow or stop after the collision, continuing to accelerate and drive recklessly through the neighborhood. The suspect turned down a cul-de-sac, stopping at the end of the street. Officer McCarthy positioned his unit directly behind him, leaving the suspect with no escape route.
Officers McCarthy and Delosh conducted a felony stop, positioning themselves behind their car doors with guns drawn. McCarthy directed commands for the suspect to turn the vehicle’s engine off. The suspect shifted the truck into reverse with his foot on the brake and looked over his right shoulder, making eye contact with McCarthy. Suddenly, the suspect put the accelerator to the floor, causing the vehicle’s tires to screech and the truck bed to bounce up and down as it barreled toward the police unit.
McCarthy and Delosh each fired their weapon at the suspect, fearing for their lives, but the suspect lay across his seat while in reverse to avoid being struck by their rounds. The officers had no time to leave their area of concealment behind the police unit’s doors and were knocked off balance as the truck slammed violently into the front of their patrol car, pushing it back about 7 feet.
Upon striking the front of the patrol unit, the suspect quickly drove his vehicle forward to its original position, and again put it in reverse, looking over his right shoulder. McCarthy quickly regained his balance and was aware that the suspect was preparing to go back into the unit a second time. McCarthy looked for his partner and did not see her. Fearing that the first impact may have knocked her under the right side of the police unit and that a second strike by the suspect’s vehicle could crush her, he re-entered the driver’s side of the vehicle. As the suspect quickly accelerated backward toward the police unit, McCarthy pressed both feet down on the brake pedal and fired his gun through his windshield at the suspect. Once again, the suspect lay across his seat, using the truck bed as cover and once again, his vehicle violently slammed into the front of the police unit.
After the second impact, Officer Delosh appeared at the passenger side door, uninjured. The suspect accelerated his vehicle forward, jumping a curb and crashed into the living room of a residence. Believing that the suspect’s vehicle was now incapacitated, McCarthy redeployed to a better position of cover behind the engine block of a Chevy Suburban while Delosh positioned herself behind the Suburban’s left rear quarter panel. With guns drawn, Officer McCarthy again began ordering the suspect to turn off the engine and step out of the vehicle.
For the third time, the suspect put his vehicle in reverse and looked over his right shoulder directly at the officers. He accelerated backwards, turning his vehicle directly toward the officers. Fearing for his life and that of his partner, McCarthy again fired on the vehicle and the suspect once again lay across his seat using the truck bed as cover. The collision was so violent that it caused the rear portion of the Suburban to move laterally from the curb, 5 feet into the street. Officer Delosh left her area of cover just prior to the suspect’s vehicle colliding into it, forcing her into the middle of the street, completely exposed with no cover.
The suspect drove forward, put his truck in reverse a fourth time and again looked over his right shoulder. The suspect quickly accelerated his truck in reverse, turning it toward Delosh, who was still standing in the middle of the street with no cover. Believing that the suspect was intending to run over his partner, he ran toward the suspect’s truck in an attempt to get an unobstructed view into the cab of the truck. McCarthy fired into the truck as it was backing toward his partner, this time striking the suspect and incapacitating him as his vehicle came to rest against a parked car.
During this unbelievable incident, Officer McCarthy displayed extraordinary common sense, sound judgment and a clear presence of mind. His heroic actions and will to survive possibly saved his partner’s life and prevented an already deadly situation from turning tragic for himself, his partner or any other citizen who would have gotten in the way of his escape.
It is with great honor that the Golden Badge Foundation recognizes LAPD Officer James McCarthy for his acts of heroism on this date by presenting him with this year’s Unsung Hero Award.
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