COUNTYWIDE : 8 Cited for Bravery in Sheriff’s Department

Eight members of the Sheriff’s Department were cited for bravery at an annual awards dinner recently.

Awarded plaques at the county event were Deputies Steve Ripple of Irvine, Wayne Peters of Huntington Beach, Dan Noval of Oceanside, John Heppert of Mission Viejo, Matt Barr of Yorba Linda and Clint Standiford of Mission Viejo, plus Sheriff’s Sgt. Danny Jarvis of Corona and Investigator Tom Schupbach.

Jarvis, Peters, Noval, Ripple and Heppert were honored for bravery for chasing down a suspected car thief in Mission Viejo on May 8. Ripple, who was shot in the head in the incident, helped the other deputies chase down the suspect, despite his wound. The officer survived the injury but has not yet returned to work.

Barr, Standiford and Jarvis, who received his second plaque for bravery, were honored for arresting another suspected car thief June 13. The suspect was chased through Mission Viejo into a dead-end street in El Toro. Unable to escape, the suspect exchanged gunfire with the deputies before they arrested him.

Schupbach, who is assigned to the Laguna Niguel substation, was given a merit award for an arrest of a suspect tied to a string of bank robberies in the Saddleback Valley.

While in a South County store, Schupbach spotted a man who fit a general description of the bank thief and noted his car license number. When another bank robbery occurred an hour later, the investigator followed up on the license plate. A suspect was identified and arrested.