Officer

California Highway Patrol

12/6/2021

Special Act Award (Gold)

On December 6, 2021, at 6:33 p.m., Officer Kenneth Weckman received a call notifying him of a vehicle blocking the roadway. Upon his arrival, he located an unoccupied van that was blocking the road with the door open and its engine running. Officer Weckman then heard screaming from a hundred yards away and drove over to the area where he found a woman waist deep in a water-filled canal attempting to smother a small child. Screaming that she was on drugs and that her son was possessed by the devil, she held her 4-year-old son face down in the muddy water. Officer Weckman tried to take the child away from the woman, but she wrapped her arms around her son and submerged herself and her son under the water. Officer Weckman entered the canal, wrestled the child away from the woman and pulled him above the water. As Officer Weckman was swimming back to shore with the child, the woman grabbed ahold of Officer Weckman. The child was nonresponsive, and Officer Weckman was desperately trying to exit the canal to provide medical assistance to the child. Using his radio microphone, Officer Weckman put out an emergency radio traffic call advising of the situation. The woman then bit Officer Weckman on the right arm, grabbed his radio microphone and pulled on his firearm, attempting to remove it from the holster. At that time the child came to and told Officer Weckman, “Please don’t kill my mommy.” While holding the child in his left arm, the woman continued to fight Officer Weckman for four and a half minutes, attempting to pull both Officer Weckman and her son under water several times while verbally threatening to kill him. Yuba County Sheriff Sergeant Chad Watson arrived on scene, and Officer Weckman handed the child to Sergeant Watson who placed him on the embankment and then jumped into the canal to assist Officer Weckman. The woman continued to state that she was the devil, the child needed to die, and she was going to kill the officers. Yuba County Sheriff Deputy Justin Young then arrived and took the child to his patrol vehicle where he wrapped him in a jacket and turned the heater up. Deputy Young ran back and jumped in the canal to assist. Moments later, Officer Weckman, Sergeant Watson and Deputy Young were able to handcuff the woman, who later admitted to consuming illegal substances. A young child was saved due to their heroic acts. The State of California takes great pride in presenting the Gold Medal of Valor to California Highway Patrol Officer Kenneth Weckman for his extraordinary act of heroism extending far above and beyond the normal call of duty.