Add another big honor for Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Lloyd
Prescott. Prescott has been named the 1994 Police Officer of the Year by Parade magazine and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.The highest national honor in law enforcement, the Police Officer of the Year Award is one of 11 police service awards given annually by Parade and the IACP to honor the bravery of the nation's 604,000 police officers.
On March 5, Prescott ran into the Salt Lake Library where Clifford Draper, armed with a handgun and a homemade bomb, was gathering hostages. Prescott posed as a library patron and voluntarily became the 10th hostage.
After 51/2 hours, Prescott shot and killed Draper after Draper indicated he was going to execute hostages.
"There's no doubt in my mind that we all would have perished had Prescott not taken him out. He is a hero," said Sue Allison, a diabetic hostage who nearly died because she was without her insulin.
But Prescott rejects such praise, preferring instead to follow the image of John Wayne, whose picture hangs on his office wall. "I'm not one to set myself apart," he said. "I'm a cop."
The lieutenant will receive his award, a plaque and a diamond-studded gold pin on Oct. 18 in New Mexico. He will be featured in the national Parade magazine in Sunday's Deseret News.