6 Are Honored as ‘Courageous Citizens’

Two San Fernando Valley men and four others were honored Wednesday by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti with the Courageous Citizen Award, given to ordinary citizens who stop a crime or bravely come to the aid of people in need.

Kevin Kurtz of Reseda was shopping in a 7-Eleven convenience store in Woodland Hills in 1995 when he noticed a young man harassing the clerk. Knowing the clerk was mentally disabled, Kurtz confronted the man.

“He was handicapped, and I wasn’t going to let the guy take advantage of that,” Kurtz said. The youth then threatened to get a gun and walked outside the store.

When Kurtz realized the man was coming back with a weapon, he charged toward the door. The door slammed into the man and the gun went off, shooting the man in the hand. He ran off and was arrested at a hospital hours later.

When Kurtz learned that the gunman was only 18, he wanted to assist programs that work to keep young people off the streets and donated $5,000 to the West Valley Los Angeles Police Department’s PAL and Jeopardy programs for their youth center in Reseda.

Also honored at a Rotary Club luncheon in Woodland Hills was Shahik Khodabakshian, who was working in the office of a Sun Valley motel last January when he heard a woman screaming.

He found a young couple outside their room, the woman prone on the ground, the man holding her down, choking her.

Khodabakshian, 23, pulled the man up, struggled with him and pushed him into a room. The Glendale resident then took the battered woman to the office and called police.

The man was arrested the next day at the victim’s home carrying .38-caliber pistol in his waistband.

Khodabakshian said he wouldn’t hesitate to help someone again. “I’m a human being and I can’t see another human being suffering and lose a life in front of my eyes.”

Also honored were Randy Labrie, 22, of Lancaster; Robert Emans, 21, of Rosamond; Christopher Daugherty, 40, of Simi Valley, and Paul Carr, 30, of Santa Monica.