On Monday morning Unified Police Department Officer Brandon Sulich was off duty, outside the Kearns (UT) precinct. He was waiting for an 8:15 a.m. departure to the funeral of Officer Doug Barney, who was shot and killed a week earlier. That’s when Officer Sulich heard the dispatch for a house fire nearby. (Thanks to reader Ron Penny for sending this story to STATter911.com.)
“Once they put out the address, I realized that I was probably only 30 seconds away from it,” Sulich said Tuesday.
The young officer, who is still on probationary status, now had to decide whether to wait for the group to go to the funeral or respond to the house fire.
“It was a very quick decision. It almost seemed natural. It wasn’t like I struggled with it. It was about the time it took for my hand to get up to my shifter was about how long it took me to make a decision,” he said. “Of course, the priority to possibly save lives is more important.”
As you will see in the video above, Officer Sulich was soon joined by West Valley City Officer Scott Folker and Sgt. Trudy Cropper and the three worked to guide a disabled elderly couple out of their burning home. West Valley City officers were patrolling Kearns so Officer Barney’s fellow officers could attend his funeral.
