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Huntley officer gets award for saving woman's life

Around 5 p.m. on June 1, Officer Justin Harper went to a house in Huntley to check on a resident who had not shown up for work.

No one seemed to be home. Harper, though, didn't leave. He talked to neighbors and walked to the back of the house, where he entered.

Harper found an unconscious woman in the garage with a car running. He opened the garage door, pulled her out and performed CPR.

She started breathing again and later made a full recovery.

For his efforts that day, Harper will become the second Huntley police officer to receive the department's new Life Saving Award this year.

"It's good when you can recognize an officer going above and beyond," Huntley Deputy Police Chief Todd Fulton said. "They go out there thinking they're (just doing) their job. It's nice to be recognized for stuff like this."

At Thursday's village board meeting, Harper, a patrol officer who has been with the force since 2007, will receive a bar to wear above his nameplate on his uniform and plaque honoring his effort.

Last year, the Huntley Police Department gave Harper a commendation for saving a choking person using the Heimlich maneuver.

Harper is one of four people the police department will recognize Thursday, when the department will hand out a new award for the first time, the Friend of Law Enforcement Citizen Award.

Police will issue a certificate to Huntley resident Carrie Metzler for her role in the arrest of two men suspected of burglarizing more than 20 homes in the area.

Metzler drove to the police station after she saw the two men running through the Heritage subdivision and described them to police using a phone in the lobby, according to police.

"Right after she called us and gave us her description, officers were able to locate them and after a short foot pursuit place them in custody," Fulton said. "We later found out they had just committed two residential burglaries in our town."

The final two awards, the Carl J. Tomaso Fitness Award, will go to Officers Megan Racila and Cory Coss, the female and male officers who scored highest on a department fitness test.

The award is named for Huntley's late village manager, who died in 2008 and was known as a fitness fanatic.

"Carl Tomaso was really big into fitness, and he worked out several times a day, so I think it's appropriate we name this award after him," Fulton said.

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