Officers from Cass County recently were awarded for saving a man’s life during a mass shooting that occurred in the Ashland area this past December.
The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge presented Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies Tyler Rohlwing and Adam Demaree, Ashland Police Chief Martin Fanning, and Beardstown paramedics Travis Matthews and Rick Hand with the Live Saving Award on April 6 during a meeting of the FOP Spoon River Valley Lodge #427 in Canton.
On December 14, 2023, Deputies Rohlwing and Demaree, and Chief Fanning, responded to the scene of a shooting in Ashland where they found a deceased woman and a seriously injured man who had gunshot wounds to his head, abdomen, and hand. The three officers immediately began life saving measures until emergency medical personnel arrived. Then, paramedics Matthews and Hand took over and performed advanced life saving procedures while they transported the victim to a Springfield hospital. The quick actions by all five men are credited with saving the victim’s life. The victim was the sole survivor of a murder-suicide where a gunman killed three people before turning the gun on himself after being stopped by police in Jacksonville.