83 Philadelphia Police Officers Honored For Acts of Unsung Bravery

Mike Newell at the Philadelphia Inquirer offers a piece on the ceremony honoring 83 Philadelphia police officers for acts of bravery.

Patrolman Michael Minor was driving solo. It was a slow, rainy morning. The radio was quiet. When the call came - a domestic disturbance on Old York Road - Minor, then a seven-year veteran assigned to the 35th District, jumped on it, even though another officer had originally been sent. He was just a few blocks away. And bored.

Pulling up, he saw a man pacing on the porch. It was the father, he'd later find out. Walking up the steps, the front door of the house swung open, and a man stood in the doorway. His eyes wide, his hands concealed, it was the son, Keenan McIntosh.

Minor did not know that McIntosh's mother, Patrice, 50, lay dead in her bedroom, shot once in the side of the head by her son, police say.

Seeing his son in the doorway, the father dropped to the ground, yelling for McIntosh to "drop it, drop it."

Minor grabbed for his weapon, and a quiet morning suddenly became a life-and-death struggle - one that would end with Minor shaken, but alive, and McIntosh in custody on murder charges.

For his actions that Sunday last December, the 41-year-old Minor was one of 83 officers awarded commendations during an awards ceremony Wednesday at the Fraternal Order of Police hall in Northeast Philadelphia. Rows and rows of stiff-backed men and women in dress blues honored for overlooked acts of valor and bravery.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20141220_83_Phila__officers_honored_for_acts_of_unsung_bravery.html