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  • Claremore Chief of Police Stan Brown, from left, commends officer James Sutton for his fast-thinking and professionalism, as he and officer Mark Book, not pictured, recently responded to a domestic call involving a suicide attempt. Officer Jeff Barlowe and Assistant Chief of Police Charles Downum are also pictured.

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February 10, 2012

Police recognized for life-saving actions

Tom Fink Staff Reporter

CLAREMORE — “To protect and serve” is part of the daily job description for Claremore police officers.

Officers James Sutton and Mark Book recently had the chance to do just that, protecting one notably distraught Claremore citizen from herself, and effectively saving her life.

“We had an incident in the city recently involving a suicide attempt which was foiled by the timely intervention and fast actions of two of our officers — James Sutton and Mark Book,” said Claremore Chief Stan Brown. “Last week, officers responded to a domestic call about a husband and wife fighting. Upon arrival, they found the male subject (the husband) attempting to take a knife from the female subject (the wife), but not before she had used it to cut her own wrists.

“Quickly assessing the situation, the officers took immediate action, applying pressure to the wound, from which the woman was bleeding profusely,” Brown continued. “They continued applying pressure, wrapping her wrist with a towel, contacting Pafford (EMS) to transport her to the emergency room.”

Because of the severity of the woman’s wounds, she was transported to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, where emergency room personnel treated her wounds and stabilized her condition.

“It’s our understanding that the woman received care both physical and psychological at St. Francis for which we’re glad, and we’re not anticipating there to be any charges connected to the incident,” Brown said. “Instead, we are focusing on the response of the officers whom I would credit with saving her life — Mark Book and James Sutton.”

Both officers were recognized earlier this week with a special commendation from the City of Claremore for their actions which resulted in the saving of a life.

“We’re proud to call these officers our own, but in their minds, they were merely doing what any of our officers would have done under the same circumstances,” Brown said. “In this case however, we felt this was above and beyond the call of duty, resulting in rescuing one of the people we’re sworn to protect, even from herself.”

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