Six Aided Crime, Fire Victims : Wilshire Group Honors Citizen-Heroes

Six people who came to the aid of their fellow citizens in the Rampart-Wilshire area this year were honored during a luncheon at the Hyatt Wilshire hotel. Three police officers were also cited.

The six were a man and a woman who rescued three children from a burning building, two men who apprehended a purse snatcher, a woman who helped subdue another purse snatcher and a man who identified a suspected killer to police.

They were honored last week at the 15th Hue and Cry Awards Luncheon sponsored by the Wilshire Chamber of Commerce. City Atty. James Hahn, who presented plaques to the award winners, said that he was “encouraged that there are people like this in our community.” The honorees included:

- George Beane, 37, a Rampart-area resident who was honored for chasing a man through his neighborhood after the man knocked down a 67-year-old woman and stole her purse. “He ran right through my yard,” Beane said. “I just instinctively took after him.”

- John Treadway, 30, of Huntington Beach, who joined Beane in the pursuit of the purse snatcher and held him until police arrived. “I brought him down with martial arts and then sat on him,” Treadway said. He said he didn’t consider his personal safety until later. “The adrenalin was pumping so much I didn’t think about it. But later that night I thought, ‘That was not a smart thing to do.’ ”

- Don Salac, 40, a general contractor, who followed an armed suspect on foot after the man shot a cab driver in the Wilshire area. “All I thought then, was that if I didn’t follow him, he’d get away,” Salac said. “Later I was scared to death.”

The three other citizen-honorees, all from the Wilshire area, did not attend. They are Moira Jauregui, 19, who chased a purse-snatching suspect and retrieved the stolen purse, and Michael Pope and Virginia Vasquez, who helped save three children who were inside a burning apartment building.

Police Officers Paul Seban and John Cooley and reserve officer John Adair also were honored for service to the department.

A chamber spokesman said the Hue and Cry awards are named after an old English custom to “pursue a felon and capture him or report him to the police.”