Nassau County Legislature recognizes Top Cops for June

The Nassau County Legislature honored two police officers from the Third Precinct of the Nassau County Police Department as Top Cops at the June meeting of the full legislature.

Officers Andrew Smith and Christopher Riebl were selected for this honor because of their work during a call where an 8-year-old girl walked into the middle of oncoming traffic, while armed with a butcher’s knife, and threatened to kill herself. The girl refused to drop the knife every time police officers directed her to and kept reiterating to the officers that she no longer wanted to live.

The situation was extremely unsafe for the girl, the police officers, and every car that was driving on the road because the incident was happening on a highly trafficked road, so the officers had to make a rapid decision on how to save this girls life without putting anyone else in danger.

One officer distracted the girl while the other one snuck up behind her and grabbed the knife from the girl. She was then transported to Nassau County Medical Center for a psychological evaluation.

“Thank you to Officers Riebl and Smith for their efforts in making sure that this girl did not harm herself, and that no one else in the situation was injured,” Legislator Laura Schaefer said. “Thanks to their swift and heroic decision in a split-second, this girl survived and was able to get the help she needed. Thank you and all our great police.”