Civilians Saluted for Heroism in Pasadena : Police Honor 9 Ordinary People for Extraordinary Action in Face of Danger

With a revolver pointed at his head, Ed Jackson couldn’t think.

He couldn’t contemplate what the odds would be of single-handedly trying to overcome three robbers. He didn’t weigh his options or try to negotiate his way out of the situation.

Instead, “for some stupid reason,” he said later, he grabbed the armed man and the gun and wrestled the weapon away from him.

“I knew I better not drop it, or I was in trouble,” said Jackson, 42, a Pasadena paint store manager whose bravado prevented the men from robbing his business in October. “I fired some shots after them to scare them, and it did because they kept running.”

Police later told Jackson that his actions may have run a gang of robbers out of business. “The guys had been hitting lots of places, but it stopped after that incident,” he said, shrugging. “I’ve pretty much put it behind me.”

But it was put back in front of him Wednesday, when the Pasadena Police Department honored Jackson and eight other heroic civilians at the 25th annual Police/Citizens Awards Banquet.

“We get very cynical about what our society is like, but when you see something like this, you see the cynicism is not founded,” said Cmdr. Mary Schander, who helped organize the banquet at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Pasadena.

Among the awards recipients were Thomas Hahn, Xavier Perez, Bradbury Mayor Richard Barakat and Willie Henderson, all of whom helped catch thieves. Jose Valdez was honored for risking personal injury to help an officer. Ralph Forsee alerted police to a fraud scheme, and Tony Carlos helped prevent a suicide.

Some recipients said they were slightly overwhelmed by the pomp and circumstance of the afternoon. Civilian and police heroes were ushered into the hotel’s grand ballroom.

“This is much more than I expected,” Jackson said.

George Pesut, 64, was also surprised by the event. Until police called to invite him to the ceremony, Pesut had all but forgotten the day last August when he saved a teenager from a burning building. He flew down from his home in San Jose, figuring “if they took the time to make this award ceremony, I should be there.”

He was joined by Donald Dean, 43, a Glendale general contractor who met Pesut during the fire and hadn’t seen him since.

Pesut had already tried to open two doors of the burning house on Arroyo Boulevard when Dean drove by on his way to a business meeting. He got out of his car, called 911 on his cellular phone and climbed up to the roof with a hose, while Pesut found an unlocked door and entered the building.

“Being an ex-coach, I can holler,” Pesut said. The former high school football coach’s shouts woke Dustin Miller, a house guest who was asleep in an upper bedroom. Pesut got Miller and the household dog outside and started dousing the house with a second hose until the Pasadena Fire Department arrived.

Both men said they did not think about what they were doing at the time.

“Anybody would have done it,” Pesut said.

Ted Saraf, a regional auto theft task force investigator, said he nominated John Trujillo, 37, for “bravery as he acted on his own without regard for his safety while aiding an officer on a felony crime.”

Trujillo, an apartment complex safety manager, looked out his window to see a man fall while chasing a teenager down the street.

His friend and fellow manager Susan Evans guessed that the teenager had stolen something from the man, and she said she told Trujillo to “go catch this kid.”

The fallen man turned out to be an undercover investigator and the youth was one of three gang members who had tried to steal a car.

“I cornered him in this other apartment complex,” Trujillo said. “He raised his hands [to fight], but he had these small hands. . . . I raised one hand and said, ‘You don’t want to go there.’ When the police got there, I hoisted him over the fence” to the waiting officers.