Hero Fund recognizes 18 Americans for extraordinary acts of heroism
The Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 18 individuals, including a veteran, who helped take down the gunman who opened fire in a Colorado Springs nightclub in 2022, a mother and brother who, in separate incidents, died attempting to save family members, and two swimmers who entered bloodied water to save a friend who was attacked by a shark.
All the men and women recognized today, in acts of extraordinary heroism, risked serious injury or death to save others. This is the Hero Fund’s third award announcement for 2024. Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Other rescuers this quarter include three teens, who in separate incidents, saved an 18-year-old man from drowning in Hawaii, a 9-month-old baby from being electrocuted in Oregon, and a woman in her 30s from drowning in Alabama.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,458 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904. Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, more than $45 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
The recipients are:
Dalton Grose, Waterville, Minnesota
John Pearson III, Acton, Massachusetts
Eddie Gerardo Cervantes Lora, deceased, Tracy, California
Stanley Becerra III, Lathrop, California
Hao Nguyen, St. Paul, Minnesota
Mark Pembleton, Burke, Virginia
Horace William Drennan III, deceased, Memphis, Tennessee
Jacqueline Montanaro, deceased, Hazlet, New Jersey
Jaclyn Rogé, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Kennedy Armstrong, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Richard M. Fierro, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ta’Ron Lee Briggs, deceased, Happy Valley, Oregon
Majiah Washington, Portland, Oregon
Jacob Ross, Satsuma, Alabama
Clarence McCallister, Pittsburgh
Daniel C. Wagner, Elgin, Illinois
Kevin M. Barrett, San Diego
Cameron A. Whiting, Encinitas, California
To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online or write to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Dalton Grose
Dwight M. Weise, 85, was disoriented and trapped in his truck after it went over a retaining wall and entered Fountain Lake in Albert Lea, Minnesota, on Sept. 20, 2023. At a point 60 feet from shore, the truck began to sink in 7 feet of water. Construction administrator Dalton Grose, 25, from Waterville, Minnesota, was working on a boat nearby with his coworker when they witnessed the accident. Grose piloted the boat close to the truck and, fully clothed, jumped into the cold water, where he swam to the driver’s door. By then, water inside the truck had reached Weise’s chin and the truck continued to sink. Grose attempted to open the door, which was damaged in the accident, and could only open it a crack before water pressure forced it shut. He was undeterred and, using his feet against the body of the truck as leverage, he pulled hard and successfully opened the door. Grose cradled Weise, pulling him from the vehicle. With his legs, Grose pushed away from the truck and then pushed off the bottom of the lakebed to resurface. After taking three bounding steps while still cradling Weise, submerging and resurfacing, Grose reached wadable water. He carried Weise to a ladder attached to the dock. Weise exited the water with help from a bystander before he was delivered to emergency personnel. Grose swam back to his boat and piloted it to shore. Weise was disoriented but suffered no injuries. Grose, also, suffered no injuries.
John Pearson III
On Nov. 13, 2020, Jeremy Retsky was swimming just after sunset in the bay off of Anahola, Hawaii, when the 18-year-old was swept by a rip current farther from shore into water over his head. Retsky was on a student travel trip with two of his friends, including John Pearson III, 18, from Acton, Massachusetts. As darkness fell, Pearson waded and swam into water, 6 feet deep, to reach Retsky, who panicked and grabbed onto his friend. Pearson was forced under the water repeatedly and had to separate himself from Retsky. As the waves crashed down on them, Pearson told Retsky to stay calm and tread water or they would both drown. He attempted to pull Retsky’s arm and drag him in, but the waves prevented any progress toward shore. At that point, Pearson thought their best chance was to conserve their energy as the current carried them farther out and parallel to shore. Pearson periodically submerged himself to allow Retsky to grab his shoulders and keep his head above water to catch his breath. After 10 minutes in the water, the current swept Pearson onto a sandbar where he could barely touch bottom, while Retsky remained slightly farther out. Pearson swam out to Retsky and grabbed him by the arm to swim back to the sandbar. There, Pearson dragged Retsky into shallow water and then walked him onto the beach. Retsky was exhausted and could barely stand. Pearson was tired and treated for scratches on his back and chest inflicted by Retsky, but was not injured. Neither required further treatment.
Eddie Gerardo Cervantes Lora, deceased, and Stanley Becerra III
After an Oct. 10 accident in which their car left the road and entered the San Joaquin River in Tracy, California, Melanie Caligiuri, 46, and her 5-year-old daughter exited the car and struggled to swim amid the cold, fast-moving water that was 11 feet deep. Dairy worker Eddie Gerardo Cervantes Lora, 41, of Manteca, was driving nearby when he saw the mother and daughter struggling to swim. Cervantes exited the vehicle, ran down an embankment to the water’s edge, removed his boots, and entered the water. Cervantes swam about 50 feet to Caligiuri and her daughter, where he managed to move them about 5 feet closer to the bank before he submerged. Around this time, laborer Stanley Becerra III, 23, from Lathrop, California, was driving nearby when he saw Cervantes run down the embankment. He and his coworkers exited the vehicle and ran to the water’s edge, where Becerra removed his clothes and entered the water. Becerra swam about 45 feet to Caligiuri and her daughter where he attempted to move them back to the bank. Their combined weight forced him to release Caligiuri and swim the daughter back alone. A bystander helped carry the daughter to safety. Shaken and out of breath, Becerra gathered himself while his coworkers continued to scan the river for Caligiuri, who had by then submerged. Caligiuri was spotted closer to the bank downstream. Becerra ran 25 feet around a patch of trees and brush to reenter the water, where he waded about 15 feet to Caligiuri before he reached her and pulled her to the bank. Others helped pull the unresponsive Caligiuri from the water and begin CPR. Emergency personnel arrived and assumed first aid before Caligiuri was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died six days later. Caligiuri’s daughter and Becerra were not injured. Cervantes’ body was recovered by police a day later.
Hao Nguyen
A 31-year-old man stood on a snowbank piled next to a safety wall on the roof of a parking garage in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Feb. 13, 2023. He peered over the side to the street 70 feet below. A woman in a nearby office building saw him and alerted state prosecutor Hao Nguyen, 40, of St. Paul, in an office down the hall. Nguyen ran across the street to the parking garage and took the elevator to the roof. Seeing the man next to the wall, he talked to the man. “How are you doing? What are you doing?” he asked. Speaking in both Vietnamese and English and attempting to establish a rapport with the man, Nguyen asked the man to leave the roof with him. The man grew increasingly agitated and ran to jump. Nguyen intercepted the man, and they grappled. The man demanded Nguyen let go of him, but Nguyen refused. As they struggled, the man, who was bigger than Nguyen, pushed Nguyen against the wall. Nguyen pushed off the wall for leverage and forced the man back. He bear-hugged the man from behind, wrapped his legs around his waist, and took him to the ground. The man had an arm free and elbowed Nguyen repeatedly, but Nguyen was able to turn his head enough to make the strikes glancing blows and continue to hold the man down. Nguyen eventually pinned him with a hold he learned from his experience with jiu jitsu until a sheriff’s deputy arrived. Nguyen suffered slight abrasions to his face from the elbows, but was otherwise uninjured.
Mark Pembleton
A Sept. 18, 2023, accident left Cesar Yepez, 33, laying injured and burning just outside of a tractor trailer that overturned and crashed into a guide rail along the shoulder of a Sterling, Virginia, highway. A fire immediately broke out at the cab and front half of the trailer. The flames rose at least 15 feet above the trailer and smoke climbed about 40 feet high. Mark Pembleton, a 43-year-old business owner from Burke, Virginia, was driving nearby and witnessed the crash. Pembleton found Yepez severely burned and screaming for help on the ground near the burning cab. Yepez had been partially ejected just beyond the open windshield area and had managed to crawl out of the engulfed cab. Pembleton grasped Yepez by his outstretched hands amid the intense heat and lunged backward. He struggled to move a heavier Yepez and would lose his grip, falling over. Pembleton was forced to retreat from the inferno. He returned and resumed pulling Yepez a short distance as he called for help. Another man, whose car was struck in the accident, joined Pembleton and the two men each grabbed an arm. They advanced Yepez away from the truck until the intense heat required brief reprieves. They returned to resume the rescue where they were able to pull Yepez 20 feet from the truck. The man that helped Pembleton patted out the flames on Yepez’s lower body and suffered minor burns to his hands. Others helped pull Yepez farther away. Ultimately, Yepez had suffered third-degree burns to nearly his entire body and died two weeks later. Pembleton drove himself to a hospital and was treated for second- and third-degree burns to his arms. He was hospitalized for a month and required nine months of follow up laser surgery to his left arm.
Horace William Drennan III, deceased
At a municipal park in Germantown, Tennessee, on Aug. 9, 2022, a 9-year-old boy fell into a 2-foot-deep concrete drainage ditch that was overflowing with murky storm water. After a sudden storm, the water surged into a narrow culvert beneath a road. The flooded area extended beyond the width of the ditch and made the water rushing into the culvert about 3 feet deep. Nearby coaching practice for his son’s flag football team, was 37-year-old account manager Horace William Drennan III from Memphis. Drennan did not know the boy or his family. Regardless, he left his son’s side and moved into the ditch to help the boy, who had been sucked through the culvert and carried out through the other end into a creek that ran through a heavily wooded area. The boy’s father and others did not immediately know the 9-year-old’s location. They responded to the ditch and struggled to pull Drennan from the rushing water, who was submerged all the way except for a forearm. The strength of the water caused Drennan and the father to be swept through the culvert, where the father found his frightened son. The two of them exited the creek safely and the boy was taken to a hospital for scrapes and scratches. Firefighters and police officers searched the scene and found Drennan’s submerged body in the creek about 70 feet past the culvert. He had drowned.
Jacqueline Montanaro, deceased
After awakening to smoke detectors, on Jan. 13, 2023, and exiting their burning Hazlet, New Jersey, home with their 8-year-old daughter, Jacqueline Montanaro, a 40-year-old supervisory customs and border patrol officer, and her husband realized that their 6-year-old, Madelyn, was still inside. The husband re-entered the home, but was forced back outside due to the intensifying flames and thick, black smoke. With no visibility inside, Montanaro then entered the house and ascended the stairs toward her daughter’s room. Firefighters later found Montanaro unresponsive at the top of the stairs and Madelyn unresponsive in her bedroom. They were taken by ambulance to the hospital but died the following day of smoke inhalation and burns.
Jaclyn Rogé and Kennedy Armstrong
Madison Schemitz, 17, had just left a Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, restaurant on June 3, 2023, when her ex-boyfriend, wielding a 4-inch pocket knife, ran up from behind and stabbed her. After knocking her to the ground he continued to stab her repeatedly in the back. Madison had been in the restaurant with her mother, Jaclyn Rogé, a 43-year-old waitress from Ponte Vedra Beach. Rogé was about 50 feet behind her daughter. The assailant had run past Rogé to attack Madison, and Rogé immediately ran over to intervene. She engaged the assailant and pulled him off Madison, but he turned to Rogé and stabbed her in the forehead, hand, and leg. As they struggled, 22-year-old Ponte Vedra Beach restaurant manager Kennedy Armstrong and a friend pulled into the parking lot. Hearing screams, Armstrong immediately sprinted across the parking lot and tackled the assailant to the ground. When the assailant tried to get back up, Armstrong jumped on his chest and pinned his arms down. Lying on his back, the assailant began to cut his own throat while Armstrong glanced over at the victims. Bystanders jumped onto the assailant and wrested the knife from him. Armstrong had sustained a cut to his right hand that severed an artery. First-responders then arrived and rendered first aid to all, including the assailant. He was later prosecuted and pleaded guilty to attempted murder and aggravated battery. Madison had been stabbed 17 times in the chest, arms, and back. She was partially paralyzed. Rogé spent four days in the hospital recovering from her stab wounds. Armstrong lost blood from the severed artery and suffered nerve damage to his hand. He underwent surgery, and physical therapy. At the time of the investigation he was continuing to recover.
Richard M. Fierro
Just before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022, a man wearing body armor brandished an assault rifle equipped with a 60-round drum magazine and opened fire inside a nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The 6’4”, 280-pound man immediately shot and killed an employee and three others in the bar area. He proceeded onto the dance floor while continuing to open fire. Among the 60 people in the club was Colorado Springs defense contractor Richard M. Fierro, 45, who was with his wife and daughter among other friends. Immediately recognizing the sound of gunfire, Fierro dove to the floor against a wall as the assailant proceeded past him while firing. As the assailant moved through the club, a Navy sailor hit him with a bucket. The sailor attempted to wrestle the rifle away from the gunman. The assailant brandished a pistol and shot the sailor in the abdomen. Fierro stood and ran at the assailant, who was still fighting with the sailor on the floor, though Fierro didn’t initially see the sailor. As Fierro approached, the assailant pointed the pistol at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. Fierro then grabbed the pistol, wrapped his arm around the assailant’s head from behind and held him face down on the floor. With the pistol, Fierro struck the back of the assailant’s head repeatedly while the sailor and at least one other person kicked the assailant. They held him there until police arrived. Fierro sustained no injuries from the incident. Five people, including the partner of Fierro’s daughter, were killed in the shooting and 19 were injured. The assailant was prosecuted in state court and received life in state prison. In a parallel federal hate crimes case, the assailant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in federal prison.
Ta’Ron Lee Briggs, deceased, and Majiah Washington
After freezing rain in Portland, Oregon, coated the city’s roads and trees with ice on Jan. 17, 2024, Tajaliayh Briggs, 21; her partner DeVonte Nash, 30; and their 9-month-old son had parked on the street when a large tree branch snapped and pulled a power line down onto their SUV and the street. Having seen a flash through her apartment window, 18-year-old assistant daycare teacher Majiah Washington went outside to see the downed power line and a small fire at the SUV that quickly extinguished. Briggs’ parents were in a vehicle nearby outside of an apartment complex with a sloped, ice-covered driveway. Nash was carrying his son away from the SUV and up the driveway as the downed power line sparked. He fell, feet-first, down the driveway and slid toward the line at the base of the street. Nash came into contact with an electrical current and was electrocuted, while the boy rested on the chest of his unresponsive father. A pregnant Briggs had attempted to reach toward Nash as he slid, but she fell next to her partner and was also electrocuted. By that time, Washington had called 911 and reported what happened. From the nearby apartment, Briggs’ brother, 15-year-old Happy Valley, Oregon, high school student Ta’Ron Lee Briggs, quickly moved past Washington and approached his sister despite his father’s pleas to stay away. He slipped, fell beside his sister, and was electrocuted. The dispatcher advised Washington that first-responders were coming, and that others should stay away from the line so as to not endanger themselves to reach the boy. Still on the 911 call, Washington got into a crouching position and slid down the driveway toward Nash. She put her hands on him to brace herself and did not feel an electrical shock. Washington then lifted the boy from his father’s chest and carried him back up the driveway to safety before first-responders arrived. She was not injured. Although the boy was taken to the hospital as a precaution, he was not injured. His parents and uncle died at the scene.
Jacob Ross
A woman in her early 30s struggled to swim in the fast-moving water of Perdido Pass channel near Orange Beach, Alabama, on May 13, 2023. At the time, she was about 90-feet from shore. College student Jacob Ross, 19, from Satsuma, Alabama, was with his partner when he heard a bystander call out that someone needed help in the water. Ross ran about 35 feet to the water’s edge and took long running steps before he waded about 15 feet. He swam 75 feet to the woman and instructed her to wrap herself around him. With the woman hanging onto the right side of his body and bracing her with his right arm, Ross swam 45 feet parallel to the beach using his left arm and both legs toward calmer water. He swam 75 feet back toward shore to wadable water and then cradled the woman, where he carried her to safety on shore. The woman said she had swallowed water during the incident but recovered on shore for about 30 minutes and was otherwise unharmed. Ross was not injured.
Clarence McCallister
On Sunday, May 5, Pastor Glenn A. Germany, 54, was delivering a sermon on the altar of a church in North Braddock, Pennsylvania, when a 26-year-old man approached and aimed a loaded pistol at him. The man pulled the trigger, but the gun failed to fire as Germany then sought cover behind a pulpit. As the assailant lifted one leg over a railing to access the altar, 63-year-old Pittsburgh heavy equipment mechanic Clarence McCallister who was video recording the service, sprinted toward the altar and leapt over the railing. Just as the assailant took a step toward the pulpit where Germany had retreated, McCallister grasped the assailant from behind and took the man to the ground. Germany responded to grasp the assailant’s wrists and the gun’s barrel. McCallister disarmed the assailant, pulling the gun from his grasp, as Germany restrained the man until police arrived about 20 minutes later. The assailant was taken into custody and jailed where he awaits further court proceedings. Neither McCallister nor Germany were injured.
Daniel C. Wagner
On June 17, 2022, , a suicidal, semi-conscious woman, 27, reportedly under the influence of prescription drugs struggled to swim in the Fox River near Elgin, Illinois. She was in 7 feet of water, 150 feet from both banks of the river. Elgin Fire Department battalion chief Daniel C. Wagner, 51, who was on duty and patrolling nearby, drove to the scene. When he arrived, local emergency personnel were throwing one end of a rope toward the woman, but she was too far from the bank. Seeing she was bobbing and submerging for at least 30 seconds and knowing that a rescue diver was at least three minutes away, Wagner removed his shoes and entered the water fully clothed. Wagner waded and swam to her, wrapping his right arm around her waist. Swimming back to wadable water at a point about 40 feet from the bank, Wagner stood and carried the woman the remaining distance to the bank. She was taken to a local hospital. Wagner suffered no ill effects.
Kevin M. Barrett and Cameron A. Whiting
A group of more than a dozen swimmers were finishing an open-water swim on June 2, in the Pacific Ocean near Del Mar, California, when teammate Caleb Adams, 46, was attacked by a juvenile great white shark. The shark was later determined to be approximately 9 feet long and 550 pounds. The bite from the shark caused severe lacerations on Adams’ chest and torso. It also inflicted lacerations and puncture wounds on his right thigh, and lacerations on his left hand from trying to fend it off. After he punched the shark twice, the predator was not seen again. Adams, and a nearby witness who heard him, screamed out for help. San Diego financial advisor Kevin M. Barrett, 51, and 31-year-old real estate company vice president of Encinitas, California, Cameron A. Whiting, had just finished their swim when they heard the screams. The men exchanged a glance and then swam toward Adams. As Barrett approached, he saw blood in the water. Reaching Adams, Barrett pulled him on top of his chest and began to backstroke toward shore. Whiting arrived seconds later, as did a male surfer, who offered his surfboard for them to use. Barrett and Whiting moved Adams atop the board face-down, while Whiting laid atop Adams’ lower body and kicked his legs in the water to propel the board toward shore. Barrett swam next to them and kept a hand on the board to steady it. Once they were in waist-deep water, Barrett and Whiting each grabbed an arm and helped Adams to shore. They made their way up the beach and laid him in the back of a lifeguard truck that had arrived. Within 10 minutes, paramedics arrived and took Adams to a nearby hospital. Doctors told Adams he lost a third of his blood from his wounds and underwent emergency surgery to repair them. He was hospitalized for three days and has now recovered. Both Barrett and Whiting were not injured.