A Littleton police officer grinned like a child as President Joe Biden secured a gleaming Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor around his neck. Cpl. Jeff Farmer traveled to Washington D.C. to accept the award – considered the highest decoration for bravery a service officer can receive.

The official ceremony, presented by Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, was a polar opposite from the intensity of the event that earned him the recognition. It was Sept. 20, 2021, when Farmer pulled a bleeding colleague from an apartment door stoop and took off like a jet for the hospital.

Littleton officer shot multiple times; police searching for suspect

That evening at around 11 p.m., Farmer and Officer David Snook responded to a 911 call of shots fired from a gold Impala in the area of West Powers Avenue and Bannock Street in northeast Littleton, according to arrest records obtained by The Denver Gazette.

When the two officers questioned a man and woman they saw walking nearby, they realized the male was the suspect they were looking for, according to arrest records.

That’s when suspect Rigoberto Valas-Dominguez fled to his apartment where he and Snook traded gunfire. Snook was shot eight times, including once in the neck, and lay at the base of a stairwell until Farmer pulled him away while trading gunfire with Valas-Dominguez, the arrest record reported.

During the exchange, Farmer lost his radio and could not call for extra help.

Mark Diamond was outside when Valas-Dominguez started firing. He called 911 with a neighbor.

“I heard three, four pretty loud shots,” Diamond said. “I heard an officer call for help and he said he didn’t have a radio, so me and my neighbor called 911 for him. I don’t know if he dropped his radio or if he just never had it, but the cops were here fast.”

The Medal of Valor panel commended his “courage, poise and uncommon loyalty” as he dragged Snook from the area and transferred him to a waiting police car where he performed lifesaving techniques.

Doctors said it was Farmer’s quick decision not to wait for an ambulance that saved Snook from bleeding to death.

Valas-Dominguez escaped and was apprehended several days later in Brighton at a girlfriend’s house. His trial is scheduled for July 11 and is expected to take four days.

Blanca Arrieta pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to a crime. A second charge was dismissed. A Certified Nurses Aid, Arriets was gifted the gold Impala by a patient, according to the arrest affidavit. 

Snook, who survived the incident after several medical operations, declined an interview request. But Littleton Police Public Information Officer Sheera Poelen said: “He’s back to walking and talking.”

Snook, who was a 13-year veteran and is the father of three sons, has now retired from active-duty police work and serves as a support services coordinator for Littleton Police.

The White House annually recognizes first responders who demonstrate extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty to save another person’s life.

Farmer was one of nine service members who received the 2021-2022 Medal of Valor, including two New York Police Department officers who were ambushed and killed responding to a 911 call, a Houston cop who subdued a heavily armed man with his hands, and a Clermont County, Ohio, first responder who jumped into a lake to save a woman who had driven into it.

Farmer flew to Washington D.C. to attend the Public Safety Medal of Valor event with Littleton Police Chief Doug Stephens, who nominated him for the honor.

Since its inception in 2001, more than 100 firefighters, EMS personnel and federal and local officers have received the award.