Last week, during a ceremony at Boston Police Headquarters Police Officers Micah Chapman and Jonathan O’Brien of District A-1 (Downtown) were awarded a Commissioner’s Commendation for their actions in the line of duty.

On Thursday September 1, 2016, while responding to a disturbance call in the Boston Common the officers observed two adult males seated on a bench smoking marijuana and approached to speak to them. Officers observed a black backpack on the ground in between the two men. When the two suspects made eye contact with the officers, they quickly stood up and walked away from them at a rapid pace, with one of the men slinging the backpack over his shoulder. The officers followed the two suspects and stopped them at which time the individual carrying the backpack began to repeatedly yell at passing pedestrians “Someone film this!” causing an alarmed crowd to gather. As the officers were speaking to the suspects, they observed that individual with the backpack was keeping his body turned away from the officer while pinning his right arm to the right side of his body, leading the officers to believe he may be armed. The officers attempted to perform a pat frisk but the suspect repeatedly pulled away at which time he was placed in handcuffs for officer safety. The officers then recovered a loaded 9mm Walther PPS handgun from the suspect’s waistband area. A search of the backpack revealed 626 Xanax pills, nine bags of marijuana, four bags of cocaine packaged for sale along with other drug paraphernalia at which time the second suspect was placed in custody without incident. Officers later recovered over $2000 in cash from the men in addition to two counterfeit bills.

For their dedication to duty and courage, they are each awarded a Commissioner’s Commendation.