(From Left) Commissioner Ron Truex, Deputy Chris Rager, Deputy Don McCune, Deputy Neil Likens, Commissioner Brad Jackson, Commissioner Bob Conley. (Photo provided by KCSD)

Kosciusko County Sheriff Rock Goshert and Captain Aaron Rovenstine have acknowledged the heroic and life-saving actions of three Deputy Sheriffs.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Deputies Don McCune and Chris Rager had responded on Sept. 25, 2013, to a radio dispatch of a female that had been struck by a northbound Norfolk Southern freight train at the Fort Wayne Street crossing shortly after 10 a.m. in the city of Warsaw. Deputies arrived and located a female underneath the train who had been critically injured with an amputated arm after apparently stepping in front of the lead engine. Both officers climbed underneath the train and applied a make-shift tourniquet to the victim’s remaining arm, circumventing any further blood loss until paramedics from Multi-Township EMS arrived on-scene.

The third officer honored was that of Deputy Sheriff Neil Likens, who had responded to a shooting incident on Aug. 18, 2014, in the Enchanted Hills housing addition in northern Kosciusko County. Upon arrival, officers from sheriff’s department approached the residence, and located two seriously wounded male subjects, one who was bleeding profusely from a femoral artery. Deputy Likens, who is also a certified Advanced EMT/medic with the North Webster/Tippecanoe Township EMS and Fire Department, applied a tourniquet to the subject’s leg to control the blood loss. Officers and Syracuse Fire Department medics were advised later by Lutheran Hospital medical staff that Officer Likens actions “most likely saved the subjects life at the scene”.

The IPOK tourniquet (Individual Patrol Officer Kit) was provided by the generous funding of the K-21 Foundation through a grant that had been initialized & created by Multi-Township E.M.S. Paramedic Ryan Reed.

Kosciusko County Sheriff Rocky Goshert and Captain Aaron Rovenstine paid honor to the three officers for their immediate response during an extremely dangerous and stressful situation to save another human beings life by going above and beyond the call of duty.