2026 Top Cops
This year, members of the LVPPA Executive Board were honored to attend the National Association of Police Organizations Top Cops Awards ceremony in Washington DC.
As is the case every year, the ceremony is filled with stories of amazing heroism and sacrifice.
This year, six police officers from Las Vegas Metro were honored as Top Cops. I want to take a moment to highlight their amazing actions.
Police Officers Marcos Fitzpatrick, Travis Noone, and Jimmy Sarkissian-Sarnani responded to an apartment for a call for service. After knocking on the apartment door, they heard a woman screaming for help and then gunfire.
Without hesitation and without knowing what was happening behind the door, they forced entry into the apartment, where they observed an adult male who retreated into a bedroom. They then heard another gunshot and a baby crying.
Again, without hesitation, the three officers made their way deeper into the apartment, into the bedroom where the gunshots and screaming were emanating from.
Once inside the bedroom, they found an adult female who had been shot multiple times. She was clinging to life, while her infant baby was lying on the bed next to her, crying. Next to her was the male who had retreated back into the bedroom; he had shot and killed himself.
As Officer Noone grabbed the infant, he encountered a young boy who was crying and hiding in the adjacent bedroom. That young boy was witness to the unthinkable.
The three officers summoned medical aide and began to do everything they could to keep the woman alive until paramedics arrived on scene. They discovered exit wounds on her back and could tell by the labored and shallow breathing that chest seals needed to be administered immediately if she had any chance of surviving.
Their training kicked in, and they did just that. The officers applied multiple chest seals, buying her the precious time needed to make it to UMC Trauma and receive life-saving surgery.
That woman and her children are alive today because of these three officers who did not hesitate. There was no question that there was someone on the other side of that door with a gun. There was no question that he would not hesitate to use it. They booted a door knowing there was a shooter on the other side. They hung it on the line and, in doing so, saved a mother's life.
In May of 2025, police officers assigned to the Bolden Area Command heard the radio traffic that stops everyone in their tracks. There was an "Active Shooter" at the Las Vegas Athletic Club.
Police Officers Skeeter Black, Aaron Javier, and Kaid Urban were each on patrol that day and heard the call come out. In the late afternoon hours, a former customer of the club walked into the facility armed with a rifle. The savage approached an employee of the gym, whom he shot and killed. The suspect fired additional rounds, striking other patrons.
As the three officers arrived on scene, the dispatcher advised them that the shooter was exiting the business. Officer Javier observed the shooter inside the threshold of the business behind the glass doors. Officer Javier engaged the suspect in gunfire. The suspect proceeded to run out of the business towards the three officers, still armed with his rifle.
The officers promptly shot the suspect, killing him.
After ensuring the suspect was no longer a threat, officers entered the gym, cleared it, and ensured that medical aid was provided to those who required it.
Both of these incidents highlight the fact that evil exists in this world. Sometimes evil is in the form of your own loved one. Sometimes it's in the form of a stranger, but make no mistake, it's out there, and it walks amongst us.
These six street cops highlight another fact. That each day, men and women leave their homes to serve strangers. They walk away from everything they have in this world and ever will have. They leave their loved ones, their spouses, their children, and they respond to someone else's worst day ever. Then, when they wrap that call up, they get back in their sleds and go do it again and again.
Thank God, not every call for service is like these two; in fact, the vast majority are not. The reality is that police officers will deal with thousands of random calls and one day walk into the middle of one of these two scenarios with little to no warning. They will be expected to perform flawlessly under a level of stress that few will ever encounter in their lifetime.
And sometimes in the service of others, they don't come home. They lose everything to help a person they do not know or have never met. Very few will ever make or be willing to make such a sacrifice. Thank God men and women like this still exist. Well done gents.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."