While digging his boots into the pavement and gripping the arm of a suspect on a motorcycle to keep him from escaping during a June 4, 2021 incident, Colorado Springs Police Officer Kyle Bergstreser reached for his Taser.

When the suspect finally turned, Bergstreser was staring down the barrel of a gun.

The officer ran for cover after several shots rang out and tried to unholster his second handgun, only to find his entire side had been incapacitated by gunshot wounds.

Quick thinking and a proper tourniquet made by an officer in training at the time of the shooting allowed him to escape and recover. The suspect was arrested days later.

“It took me a year to get back on the street, but I never had any thought of leaving (law enforcement),” Bergstreser said.

For his service and being seriously wounded in the line of duty, Bergstreser received the Purple Heart, the highest honor awarded to local police officers at CSPD’s 38th annual Medal of Valor dinner on Thursday, held at The Broadmoor. He also received the Medal of Valor, awarded to officers who demonstrate “extraordinary heroism” in the face of extremely dangerous situations and at imminent risk of severe bodily injury.

In another incident half a year later, on Jan. 19, 2022,  CSPD Officer Jared Huston, pursued a suspect into an apartment building after the man had shot at police, unprovoked.

Not knowing where the suspect could be hiding, Huston turned a corner and also found himself at the end of a barrel.

“I still saw the gun, so I shot him twice,” Huston said. “I (replayed) it in my mind every day, that’s when you start picking it apart. But in the moment, it’s react, or die.”

Huston, along with Bergstreser, was one of 25 others to receive the Medal of Valor Thursday. 

Throughout the ceremony, officers described a similar experience: When faced with imminent danger, time slows down — almost becoming surreal — and training “kicks in.”

On Dec. 22, 2021, a woman called 911 reporting that a neighbor was shooting into her home, reportedly over a floodlight the suspect thought was pointing into his home, where his 90-plus-year-old mother slept.

After the man refused to comply with orders to exit his house, officers used a Rook, an armored rescue vehicle, to clear the front door and send in a drone to locate the suspect.

That footage, displayed to hundreds of guests at the ceremony, showed a masked man firing directly at the drone from only feet away before disappearing into the home. 

While some officers, including Officer Clinton Sunada, aided the “disoriented” mother from the restroom – where she had wanted to wash her hands – to the window to evacuate, others pursued the suspect in the mayhem elsewhere in the house.

Sergeant Jason Reeser fired, hitting the suspect in the hip before the man descended down the stairs.

Once the house was cleared, officers found the suspect deceased at the bottom of the stairwell.

“Just in a split second, violence can occur within our society,” Reeser said. “We had dominated that scene, (but) that individual (wanted) to try to shoot it out with law enforcement instead of just peacefully surrendering and taking the consequences for his actions that day.”

“We all sign up, in law enforcement, to obviously give the ultimate sacrifice if needed to protect our citizens, but the fact that the individual is actually shooting at you was just a very surreal moment,” Reeser said.

Reeser and officers Sunada, Christopher Laabs and Nathan Johnson each received the Medal of Honor that day for “voluntarily” distinguishing themselves “by gallantry and extraordinary heroism” at the risk of their lives.

Overall, 36 CSPD members were recognized with Medals of Honor, Medals of Valor or the Distinguished Service Award, granted to those who demonstrate courage while facing imminent risk of serious injury in order to contain the situation.

The department and ceremony organizer, the Police Foundation of Colorado Springs, also recognized two citizens for heroic efforts during the Club Q shooting on Nov. 19, 2022, which left five victims dead and 17 injured.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas James, who currently serves in the U.S. Navy, brought the shooter to the ground and pushed a rifle out of the shooter’s reach, sustaining a bullet wound himself.

A second man, U.S. Army veteran Richard Fierro, also subdued the gunman until police arrived.

Though neither of the men was present to accept the award, each received the CSPD Civilian Medal of Distinction.