2 Valley Residents Are Honored for Courage

Two San Fernando Valley residents were among nine people honored Friday for risking their lives to help catch criminals.

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti gave Courageous Citizens awards to John Atzinger of Van Nuys, and posthumously to Christopher L. Brown of Woodland Hills, and seven others.

Brown, 24, was shot and killed a year ago as he tried to catch a shoplifter in Encino. He was in a 7-Eleven parking lot on Burbank Boulevard when he saw three shoplifters run from the store with several cases of beer, police said.

Atzinger, 23, the other Valley honoree, aided a woman who had been robbed on Van Nuys Boulevard. Atzinger drove the woman around the neighborhood in search of the robber, and when the woman spotted him, Atzinger chased and held the man until police arrived.

Other certificate recipients were Lorena Bailon, who helped arrest a robbery suspect in Norwalk; Michael and David Martinez of Highland Park, who caught a purse-snatcher; Elizabeth Gwin, who chased an alleged hit-and-run driver in Norwalk; Raul Toral and Victor Palacios, who helped arrest two men in El Monte wanted for robbery and homicide, and Donald Beck, who identified a murder suspect in Hacienda Heights.