Three Oakdale police officers are scheduled to be acknowledged at the March 3 Oakdale City Council meeting for their action in safely taking into custody an armed and delirious subject.

Police Sergeant Michael Nixon and Officers Rocky Anderson and Joseph Parreira will be recognized by Police Chief Lester Jenkins with the department’s Unit Citation Award at the beginning of the meeting.

The commendation, determined by the department’s awards and medals committee, recognizes performance of a team of individuals that went above and beyond the call of duty under extremely hazardous conditions where the members exhibited bravery and demonstrated a high degree of teamwork and professionalism which resulted in the attainment of departmental goals.

“I’m extremely proud and pleased to have officers of this caliber on the department,” said Chief Jenkins on Friday, Feb. 28.

The award was for the officers’ performance to a call when Officer Anderson was flagged down and informed that a 17-year-old family member was inside a residence, armed with a large knife, and acting “crazy.”

Sergeant Nixon and Parreira arrived to assist and when the officers made their way to the front of the house, they heard a loud thud followed by a woman’s screams. They entered the residence and found the subject throwing items out of a closet in a stairwell. The subject armed himself with two knives, started swinging them toward the officers, and withdrew back toward the closet.

After deploying a Taser failed to stop the subject, Officer Anderson used a less-lethal bean bag weapon and fired a bean bag round that struck the juvenile in the chest causing him to fall and drop the knives. When the subject attempted to recover the knives, Officer Anderson again fired another bean bag round knocking him back.

Officer Parreira and Nixon moved in to handcuff and take the juvenile into custody.

Officers found that in addition to the knives, the suspect also had a double-edged 4-inch blade dagger in ready to use concealed in his pants. Police also found tin foil containing methamphetamine residue they believed the juvenile had been using.

“When I heard about this case, I thought that had a lesser experienced team of officers handled this call, a shooting with extremely serious consequences could have likely occurred,” said Chief Jenkins. “It goes to show the caliber of officers here at this department. It’s something you don’t see with many other agencies – officers with this amount of experience working patrol.”

According to Jenkins, Sergeant Nixon has over 22 years of experience working in Oakdale, Officer Parreira has eight years, and Officer Anderson has over six years. Two of the three also have years of experience with other police departments in the area prior to coming to Oakdale.