From Private Citizens to Public Heroism - Heroes: Three ordinary people who saw emergencies and got involved are honored by police.

They’re ordinary citizens, just plain folk--a nurse, a sales manager and the owner of a guitar shop. But at an award ceremony Friday, Los Angeles police said they were heroes.

John Silkey rescued a 7-year-old boy who nearly drowned in the swimming pool of a North Hollywood apartment complex, and Norik Renson and Larry Berk helped police capture a thief who authorities linked to at least 21 residential burglaries.

All three men were honored as “citizen heroes” by the booster association of the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division. The group, known as the East Valley Police Activity League Supporters, or PALS, presented the awards at their 21st annual luncheon.

Silkey, a nurse at UCLA Medical Center, said he was returning from the supermarket July 10 when he noticed a black spot at the bottom of the pool in his apartment complex.

“At first I thought someone had thrown something in,” Silkey said, “then I saw clothes on the cement and I just knew it was a body.”

He pulled the victim--Abdullehi Mohammed, a 7-year-old native of Nigeria visiting relatives--from the water. There was no pulse and the youngster was not breathing.

Silkey eventually revived him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, then called the 911 emergency number. Mohammed was transported to Childrens Hospital, where he recovered fully, police said.

In February, Berk, a sales manager, and Renson, who runs a guitar shop in North Hollywood, saw a suspicious car cruising their Studio City neighborhood, which had been plagued by residential burglaries.

They watched the driver, Ricardo Andrade, 27, of Hollywood, approach several apartment buildings, finally entering one and leaving with a microwave oven wrapped in a blanket, police said.

Berk and Renson used a car telephone to alert authorities and followed Andrade so they could keep officers informed of his location.

Andrade was subsequently arrested and is serving a two-year sentence in prison for burglary, police said.

In addition to citizens, police honored their own Friday. Two veterans of the North Hollywood Division--Michael Jensen and Ignacio Gonzalez--were named “Officers of the Year” for what their superiors said is consistently exceptional performance that has led to a reduction of crime in the East Valley area.