APD officers given award for saving two children
Several Austin police officers were recognized Wednesday for saving the lives of two children.
Last March Austin police officers Bryan Pietrowski, Christopher King, Kevin Kelly and Corporal Dave Silva rescued innocent children who had been taken from home and were headed to terrible fate...
On March 15th, the officers were given an alert that 20-year-old Chase Burgess kidnapped his girlfriend's children--ages 16 months and four months--from Lee County.
His cell phone was tracked to East 7th Street and Springdale Road in Austin. Officer Pietrowski talks about what it was like to get the notification.
"It just puts a lump in your stomach. We have to find this guy and get the kids back to the mom at least,” said Pietrowski.
Corporal Silva located Burgess and made a traffic stop in the 700 block of San Marcos Street. Pietrowski and the other officers backed him up.
"I helped get him out of the car. I put him in handcuffs and then that's when we put him in the back of the car and we started looking in the car,” said Pietrowski.
Officers found body disposal materials and would later learn that Burgess told the childrens' mother that he planned to kill them.
"You see the shovel and the plastic sheet and you kind of get that feeling that he was building up his courage and his GPS was set to Houston. That he was for real and he was going to carry out the threats he made to his girlfriend,” said Pietrowski.
The officers didn't just make an arrest. They bought food and diapers for the kids with their own money.
For their life-saving actions, Chief Acevedo presented them with the Spirit of Service Award.
"I want to tell you guys congratulations, phenomenal work. If you don't do anything else for the rest of your career you can know for certain that you saved two small children,” said Acevedo.
"This is definitely going to stick with me for the rest of my life and the rest of my career,” said Pietrowski.
Burgess was charged with kidnapping and endangering a child.