Photo Credit: Getty Images
SANTA ANA (CNS) - The head of the union that represents sheriff's deputies and district attorney's office investigators in Orange County appealed today to the Board of Supervisors to consider supporting workers' compensation claims made by law enforcement members wounded in the Oct. 1 shooting massacre in Las Vegas.
``Many of those deputies and district attorney investigators present took action to save lives,'' Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, told the supervisors at their regular board meeting. ``They tended to the wounded and did other things I would classify as heroic deeds.''
The supervisors were scheduled to meet behind closed doors this afternoon on the possibility of litigation stemming from the workers' compensation claims.
Multiple law enforcement officers from throughout the Southland were at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when a gunman with an arsenal of weapons killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of other concertgoers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel across the street before taking his own life.
Dominguez acknowledged that his members were hurt out of state, but appealed to the county to support the wounded anyway.
``They were in the state of Nevada, not in California, obviously, so there may be issues where these incidents occurred,'' Dominguez said.
But the union head said law enforcement officers are always on call to respond to emergencies no matter where or when they happen.
``If you are capable and able, you will take action to protect life and property, and that's what these guys were doing in Las Vegas,'' Dominguez said. ``They were doing what was expected of them.''
Not covering the workers' compensation claims wound send a bad message, Dominguez said.
He recalled a hospital bedside visit with one of the wounded deputies, a U.S. Marine veteran who was also wounded in Afghanistan. The deputy, who was shot in the stomach and the leg, told him he didn't want any fanfare for his rescue efforts in Las Vegas, Dominguez said.
``He said, `I don't want to talk about this. I was just doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm a Marine and deputy and that's what I do,' '' Dominguez said. ``So do the right thing and look at these cases -- perhaps on an individual basis.''