HUTCHINSON, Kan. – On May 13, the Kansas Association of Chief of Police will have their annual awards ceremony. This year there were 121 nominations with 49 of those nominees being awarded. Of those 49 award winners, there are 17 who will receive the gold award. The gold award is a recognition of uncommon valor in the line of duty.
Hutchinson Police Lt. Josh Radloff will be awarded the Gold award for three major incidents from 2014. One being a hostage situation, another for a high level rescue of a severely injured person, and the third was for the shooting incident.
On March 21, 2014, emergency crews were sent to the location of a multi-level building under construction for an injured person. Radloff, not dispatched, but believed he could help, arrived on scene to assist. It was reported that the injured person was a construction worker and had been struck in the head by flying debris, suffering a severe laceration, which the reporting party described as a large hole in his head. The victim, who was bleeding profusely and unable to stop the bleeding, was on the roof of the building and was unable to maneuver himself to the bottom due to his injuries and the fact that the building had no stairwell built at the time. The only way possible to traverse the multiple levels was to climb an extension ladder used by the construction crew. Radloff, without hesitation climbed all three levels using only the primitive ladder system. Once Radloff arrived on the top floor he was faced with having to step across roof rafters, the entire length of the building and then climb through a small opening, which he was barely able to fit, in order to reach the victim. Radloff quickly assessed the victim’s injuries and administered first aid which stopped the bleeding.
Radloff learned that the Fire Department was going to be delayed in their response, due to windy conditions and inadequate equipment available, therefore he assisted the victim to his feet and guided him down the complex route to the bottom floor where he received further treatment by EMS.
Radloff’s quick response aided in prolonging the victims life and allowed the victim to receive prompt medical treatment.
On April 23, 2014, a corrections officer went to a residence with the intent to serve an arrest and detain order for Todd Lloyd. He had fled from the house with a female in tow. When Lloyd was located and confronted, he produced a knife and held it to the female’s head and throat. Radloff arrived and observed what was transpiring. The event turned into a moving hostage situation. Radloff armed himself with his patrol rifle. He began giving loud and clear commands to Lloyd to drop the knife. He at first refused and positioned the female in front of him in an attempt to shield himself. It was apparent through video accounts that Radloff stopped the movement of the situation. He knew that he was justified in taking a shot and ending the threat, however he was able to correctly assess the presenting options and ordered the female to get down. The female complied, which left Lloyd exposed. He quickly threw his knife down but didn’t give up his fight. Radloff transitioned from his rifle to his taser, but his taser was ineffective. He was then forced to try and physically control Lloyd and in doing so, Lloyd tried to grab Radloff’s rifle. Fortunately, the sergeant and another officer were able to gain control of the suspect and place him in custody. The suspect was convicted and sentence to over eighteen years.
On November 10, 2014, officers were dispatched to 300 E. 10th for a suspect armed with a knife. The reporting party stated that Justin Matthews was armed with two knives and that she was in fear that he would slit her throat. Radloff arrived first, and did not wait for back up since he was in fear of the reporting party’s safety. As he approached the house, the reporting party came out of the residence and before he could ascertain where the suspect was, the suspect came out of the residence, yelling and screaming, armed with two knives. Radloff gave multiple commands to drop the knives, but Matthews refused and continued to approach the officer. Radloff shifted positions to clear his field of fire away from the reporting party, who was still on the porch. When Matthews continued to approach, refusing commands, fearing for the safety of the reporting party and himself, Radloff fired two shots, striking Matthews once and stopping the threat. Matthews was treated and then released to the custody of the Reno County Sheriff’s Department. The in car video of the incident was released and went viral on Hutchpost and other media sites.
In 2013, Radloff was involved in an incident where he earned the life saving award. It happened on Aug.14, when he had just cleared a call at 33rd and Lorraine and observed a Reno County Sheriff Officer’s patrol car with its emergency lights on at 43rd and Lorraine. He went to that location to see if he could assist. When he arrived, he found the deputy had just arrived at a major injury accident. The deputy went to assist the injured in one of the vehicles. Radloff then went to the other which was a passenger vehicle with a caved in driver’s side and found the driver unconscious in the passenger side of the vehicle. As he was assessing on how to get into the vehicle, Radloff realized that there was an infant in a car seat with its head slouched in a manner that was causing it not to breath. Sgt Radloff immediately jumped on top of the vehicle and reached in through the sun roof and moved the infant’s head to line up with its body properly. After repositioning the infant’s head, the infant started to breath and eventually started crying. Radloff and the deputy were eventually able to move the infant in its child seat to EMS. Afterward, Radloff stabilized the neck and head of the adult driver as she was becoming conscious and was thrashing around.
Due to his action, he not only stopped the driver from further injuring herself, he also saved the life of the infant.
*We had the caption indicating that Radloff was a sergeant when in fact he has been promoted to Lieutenant. We have corrected our mistake and apologize for the error.