Three Elkhart police officers honored

ELKHART, Ind. (WNDU) - Three Elkhart city police officers stood front and center before the Police Merit Commission on Monday after being lauded for saving lives and one sergeant’s meticulous work on a 2002 cold case.

Chief Kris Seymore awarded commendations to Sgt. Greg Harder, Cpl. Brian Davis, and Lt. Greg Sommer.

Harder’s work on the 2002 cold case murder of Robert Reed led to an arrest warrant being issued for Marcus Love, who has been charged in connection to Reed’s killing.

“Because of your hard work and thoroughness, this criminal will not be able to prey on any other citizens in our community,” said Seymore. “You made an observation that hadn’t been noticed during the previous investigations.”

Cpl. Brian Davis saved two lives in one day in August 2021. The first was a stabbing victim, and the second was a female who was unresponsive. Davis performed CPR on the woman until paramedics could stabilize her.

“The actions that you took contributed in saving her life. You clearly saw that she was not breathing and immediately took over for family, giving her CPR,” noted Seymore.

Lt. Eric Sommer was commended for talking to a man on the phone, who was on the brink of dying by suicide. Sommer has been credited with saving his life.

“Lt. Sommer spoke with the man for approximately 45 minutes to which he eventually agreed to place his gun on the dashboard of the vehicle. He then exited his vehicle and was taken into custody and transported to the hospital without incident,” Seymore stated.

Mayor Rod Roberson thanked the officers for their dedication and service.

“These commendations, thank you Chief, are so well-received, and I’m sure your family, your colleagues and I, as Mayor, as well as all of the staff, appreciate your work and your diligence,” said Roberson. “And we support you supremely so thank you so much for what you’ve done for the citizens of Elkhart.”

Seymore explained why events like Monday’s commendation ceremony are crucial for the police department.

“The department consists of human beings. And we have made some mistakes over the years. But this type of thing is what counterbalances that, when you see a bad news story, of course, that makes the news - whether it’s a lawsuit, or whether it’s a case that wasn’t handled right, or an officer did this. Yeah, that’s gonna make the news. That’s called transparency,” Seymore remarked. “But when we have something like this, like I said, it counterbalances, and it’s something that people - there’s three lives that are still with us because of those officers. And there’s a cold case, another life that was lost, that there’s been accountability for that case, you know, based on the diligence that those officers showed, so I couldn’t be more proud.”

Davis and Sommer, who received life-saving commendations, now qualify for department medals.

Copyright 2022 WNDU. All rights reserved.