James Mayhorn
Highway Patrolman
California Highway Patrol
12/25/1960
Special Act Award (Gold)
![Gold Medal of Valor](images/photos/medal_of_valor_gold.jpg)
Officer James Mayhorn was patrolling US 40 on Christmas day, when he observed a car driven by an Air Force sergeant halted on an off-ramp by a man waving a rifle. Officer Mayhorn immediately stopped his vehicle, pulling in behind the other car and off the road. He emerged quietly, keeping the other car between himself and the gunman, the slipped around the rear. As he appeared at the left of the Air Force man’s vehicle, the suspect was walking to the driver’s window. He swung the rifle around to bear upon the officer, but Officer Mayhorn seized the gun and disarmed him. Only after handcuffing the suspect and placing him the patrol car did Officer Mayhorn discover a pickup truck containing the body of a man whom the suspect had just shot and killed a few minutes earlier. It was determined that the killer tried to stop the pickup truck containing a man and his wife. The truck driver swerved around the man standing in the road and stopped about 40 yards further down the off-ramp. The gunman apparently angered when the driver failed to stop immediately, fired through the rear window and struck the driver in the head. The murdered man’s wife was found a short way down the off-ramp, crying hysterically. She was taken to the hospital and Officer Mayhorn took the gunman to jail. Later it was discovered the man had a long history of mental illness.