4 DEA Agents Honored for Valor
When DEA Agent John Prangenberg saw fellow agent Shane Murray pinned beneath the wheels of a drug dealer’s car and the driver ready to hit the gas, he opened fire--killing the suspect and probably saving Murray’s life.
Two other agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also fired before the suspect could drive over Murray’s chest as he lay on the ground.
For their efforts, Prangenberg, Murray and colleagues Sean Fromson and Ralph Partridge received the Medal of Valor Thursday from the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Assn.
“You don’t really think about it,” Prangenberg said after the awards ceremony, held at the Century Plaza Hotel. “You just react.”
At least 500 people--including members of the federal bar, U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas and other dignitaries--attended the ceremony. Actor Robert Stack, who played Treasury Agent Eliot Ness in the TV series “The Untouchables,” was master of ceremonies.
The incident for which the four agents were recognized happened July 1, 1999, in Hawthorne. Eleven other federal agents working out of Southern California received Distinguished Achievement Awards.
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