Medal of Valor- Awarded for Conspicuous Gallantry and Intrepidity at the Risk of Life, Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

Mountain View K9 Owner Rob Smith's account of the event leading to Armour's Medal of Valor:

On Sunday, August 17, 2003, Deputy Andrew Mazur of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, in South Carolina, initiated a foot pursuit of a suspicious person. A fight broke out between the suspect and Deputy Mazur, who called in for backup. Somehow, the suspect, Chris Herring, was able to get the deputy’s service weapon and shoot him in the head at point blank range, killing him instantly. Andrew was only 23 years old.

I was off duty at the time, but on this date I received a page from the dispatch that they needed me and my K-9 partner to respond to the scene of a Deputy-inolved shooting. It did not take long for me to learn that this situation was much worse than the pager message had sounded. Fellow Deputy Andrew Mazur had been killed in the line of duty and the suspect was still at large.

The suspect had fled with Deputy Mazur’s duty weapon and needed to be apprehended. I was part of a large team given the task of tracking this man down. Starting late in the afternoon we began searching a heavily wooded area. Our search efforts were slow and diligent. Many hours were spent in a rain-swollen creek where we believed the suspect had fled.

We continued our search regardless of the violent thunderstorm overhead. We pressed on hoping to capture the man who had killed our friend. Many hours passed and the decision was made to suspend our search efforts until morning. I left to clean my equipment and K-9 partner, planning to return a few short hours later.

I heard radio traffic that the suspect had been spotted fleeing into an overgrown field. The search team quickly assembled and we headed directly into the field. Deputy John Gardner and his K-9 partner were given the task of tracking the suspect. A short time into the track, Deputy Gardner told us that he saw evidence that we were heading in the right direction.

It was only a few moments later that the crack of gun fire began to ring out. Deputy Gardner’s K-9 partner had taken us directly to the suspect who was hiding in a thick briar bush and couldn’t be seen. The Deputy pulled his K-9 out of the bush thinking he had been shot and began to back away. More gun shots rang out and then a deafening silence took over. The sound of my name being yelled broke the silence; they wanted me and my K-9 to enter the brush and finish getting the suspect who still could not be seen. They called for me and my K-9 to apprehend the suspect from the briars and overgrown brush.

Armour and I headed for the briars. My K-9 partner bravely and without second thought climbed down into the briar bush and dragged the suspect out. The suspect, Chris Herring, was dead.