Denver Police Honor 3 Men For Saving Officer's Life

DENVER (CBS4) - Three citizens on Tuesday were honored and thanked for helping save the life of a Denver police officer.

On Sept. 6 a Denver police officer was responding to a welfare check on a homeless man on the Interstate 25 on-ramp at Downing Street when she was attacked.

"I thought to myself, 'If that guy gets that gun, she's going to die.' He was attacking her violently," Cmdr. Joe Montoya read from a statement. "If someone is going to attack an officer it's likely that they're going to kill."

Three men -- Mike Guillen, Tyson Ingells and Scott Davis -- all pulled over to apprehend the homeless man.

"I didn't really look at it, I was driving, but my wife looked over and saw there was something happening, and she said, 'She's in trouble, we need to stop,' " Ingells said. "The gentleman was just sort of mercilessly beating her and it looked like he was going for her gun."

"I could see that there was somebody on top of a police officer striking them. So I pulled off where it was safe, and as I looked back I could tell there was a police officer there and two other people," Davis said.

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The three men were given the highest civilian award Denver police give out -- the Life Saving Award.

"If someone is going to get killed you have to step in. It's not a question of optional," Ingells said.

"The overriding theme when I talk to every one of these gentleman was that it was the right thing to do," Montoya said. "The Denver Police Department concurs and we thank you for keeping us whole on that day."

The department also honored a security guard who stopped a man trying to carjack two vehicles.