On September 20, 2021, Littleton Police Corporal Jeffrey Farmer and Officers Therese Williams and David Snook responded to the area of South Delaware Street and West Powers Avenue on a call of shots fired. Officer Snook located a possible suspect vehicle in the parking lot on the north side of West Powers Circle, which is a large multi-family housing unit. As he approached, two subjects (a male and a female) walked away from the vehicle and towards a door into the west side of the building. Corporal Farmer was also on scene, having stopped and parked his patrol car adjacent to an apartment complex. Officer Williams was several blocks away contacting possible witnesses.
Officer Snook directed Corporal Farmer to contact the two subjects while he addressed the suspect's vehicle. Upon determining the vehicle was, in fact, their suspects' vehicle, Officer Snook approached Corporal Farmer and the suspects, and advised the male suspect that he was under arrest. A foot chase of the male suspect ensued, whereby Officer Snook pursued him into the building located at West Powers Circle. Upon his entry into the building, Officer Snook was met by a hail of gunfire and shot multiple times by the suspect. Officer Snook went down, partially in the foyer of the building, with life-threatening injuries. It was later determined that Officer Snook was shot a total of nine times, only one of which was stopped by his vest.
Corporal Farmer had initially also started to chase after the suspect, but in doing so he had severely injured his knee. The injury was of such severity that it took Corporal Farmer six weeks to return to full duty. Corporal Farmer quickly recognized the gravity of the situation, as Officer Snook was gravely injured yet was still in the line of fire from the suspect.
At great personal risk, Corporal Farmer determined that immediate rescue of Officer Snook was required to save his life. Despite his knee injury, and without regard to his own safety, Corporal Farmer moved to Officer Snook's position and started to drag him out of the doorway when the suspect began firing at the officers again from the second-floor landing. One round narrowly missed Corporal Farmer's head, impacting the wall, and splashing debris on his face. Another of the suspect's rounds went through the open doorway and shattered a car window of a nearby vehicle. Corporal Farmer returned fire at the suspect who continued firing at the officers, trying to kill them.
Using controlled, accurate fire, Corporal Farmer was able to force the suspect back, allowing him to grab Officer Snook and pull him to safety. Based on his assessment of Officer Snook's injuries, Corporal Farmer made the decision not to wait for medical assistance. By this time, after hearing the gunfire, Officer Williams had arrived at the scene. With the suspect still on the loose, Corporal Farmer, with the assistance of Officer Williams and Officer Choate, carried Officer Snook into Farmer's patrol car and drove him to the hospital with Officer Choate in the back seat with Officer Snook, attending to his injuries.
The police department was later informed by hospital emergency room staff that Officer Snook was within minutes, if not seconds, of death and had Corporal Farmer not made the decision to immediately rescue and carry Officer Snook to his car and drive him to the hospital himself, despite his own serious injury and substantial risk of his own death, Officer Snook would have likely died.
Corporal Farmer demonstrated bravery, decisiveness, and selflessness by his quick life-saving decisions to save the life of another officer.
Learn about all of the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor recipients