Dorothy Kochs

Dorothy Kochs, 33, entertainer, saved Norman E. Bayless, 43, police lieutenant, and Melvin F. Stahley, 47, police sergeant, from being shot, Cleveland, Ohio, January 19, 1956. When a man remained in a nightclub after closing and with a gun in one hand demanded money from the owner, the club porter left the building unnoticed and summoned Bayless and Stahley, who were on duty in the vicinity. The gunman then was sitting at the bar between the owner and Mrs. Kochs, an entertainer at the club, who had ignored a chance to leave in the hope of dissuading the gunman from harming anybody. The only other person present was the owner’s partner, who was behind the bar. Leaving the porter outside, Bayless and Stahley drew their loaded pistols and entered the club through a door 15 feet from the gunman, who immediately turned from the bar and aimed his loaded revolver at the officers. Mrs. Kochs, who had been planning what to do if the man attempted to shoot, quickly moved to the gunman and, with her back to Bayless and Stahley grasped the man’s arm and pushed the revolver downward as the gunman and the officers fired. The owner lunged out of the way, and his partner stooped behind the bar. The action of Mrs. Kochs deflected the gunman’s aim, and the one bullet fired by him entered the floor two feet away. Four of the officers’ bullets struck and instantly killed the gunman, and the fifth bullet struck Mrs. Kochs in the back and tore away part of a vertebra. She was almost totally paralyzed from the waist down.