Sheriff Outraged That Deputy Didn’t Receive Medal of Valor

Disturbed that a local law enforcement organization failed to award slain Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Peter John Aguirre Jr. a Medal of Valor at its annual awards ceremony last weekend, Sheriff Larry Carpenter sent out a department memo condemning the decision.

“I am deeply disappointed at their decision and question the validity of their selection process,” Carpenter said in the memo distributed Monday to all department personnel.

Aguirre, who was assigned to the Ojai sheriff’s station, was shot and killed July 17 after responding to a domestic disturbance call in Meiners Oaks.

The Peace Officers Assn. of Ventura County handed out 13 Medals of Valor on Saturday to law enforcement officers and civilians. Of those, three went to sheriff’s deputies, including one to Aguirre’s partner for his role in arresting the man who shot the 26-year-old rookie deputy.

The organization, however, did give Aguirre its newly created Distinguished Service Medal, but did not feel that his actions met the criteria for the Medal of Valor, which requires a person to show “extraordinary bravery, above and beyond the call of duty, where risk of life actually existed and the officer was aware of such risk; where such failure to take action would not justify censure.”

Aguirre and three other deputies responded to the domestic disturbance call last summer. When they arrived, Aguirre went to the door of the home and was greeted by a distraught woman. When he walked past the woman, Michael Johnson, her estranged husband, came out of the shower naked holding two pistols and began firing at Aguirre. Aguirre never got his weapon out of its holster.

Johnson was arrested and is awaiting trial on murder charges. His defense attorneys have not disputed that he shot Aguirre.

In his memo, Carpenter said: “I do not believe there can be any action which rises higher ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ than giving your life.”

Saying that both a California and a national group are planning to memorialize Aguirre for his actions and award him their organizations’ Medals of Valor, Carpenter said, “If the Peace Officers Assn. of Ventura County could not find valor in the life of Deputy Peter Aguirre Jr., then they shall never find it.”

Carpenter would not comment Tuesday, saying through a spokesman that he did not intend for the memo to become public and that he did not want to put the family through any additional pain.