PPO Sgt. Robert Horseman Awarded

On August 26, 2013, a suspect was arrested and charged with Failure to Obey a Lawful Order and Disorderly Conduct. Upon arrival at the Pocomoke City Police Department for processing, the suspects handcuffs were removed in the cell area for fingerprinting purposes. At this time, the suspect unexpectedly charged at Sgt. Horseman who was working by himself and began choking him from behind, while punching and kicking him. The suspect was extremely combative and hostile; Sgt. Horseman made numerous unsuccessful attempts to activate his emergency button on his radio to alert other officers of his crisis. The suspect stated that he was going to kill Sgt. Horseman, while continually choking, kicking, punching and biting him. Beginning to lose consciousness from this violent onslaught, Sgt. Horseman was finally able to deploy his Taser with a shot to the suspects’ chest area, which yielded no relief from the attack.

The suspect continued his violent assault, which made its way from the cell area to the Processing Room hallway when Sgt. Horseman was finally able to activate his emergency button; Sgt. Horseman was unable to talk or yell for assistance due to the suspect having a strong chokehold on him from behind. Finally, Sgt. Horseman was able to maneuver his body to deploy departmental OC Spray. At this time additional officers responded for back up and the suspect was subdued.

Even after additional officers arrived on scene, the suspect was still extremely violent and combative. The entire assault on Sgt. Horseman lasted approximately 8 minutes and without his strong will to survive and his police training, he could have been killed. This event was videotaped through the in-house camera system. The video tape of this incident is now shown at all academy training classes to prepare recruits to the dangers of their job and to hopefully prevent this type of incident from becoming a reality to someone else.

Maryland Law Enforcement Officer, Inc. is proud to present Sgt. Robert Horseman with the Distinguished Service Award for 2014. Each year MLEO selects one (1) officer throughout the state of Maryland as their Distinguished Service Award recipient.
Sgt. Horseman received the below listed citations during the Awards Ceremony held in Baltimore, MD on June 11, 2014:
•Distinguished Service Award awarded by Maryland Law Enforcement Officer’s Inc.
•Governor’s Citation signed by Governor Martin O'Malley
•House of Senate Award signed by State Senator James Mathias
•House of Delegates Award signed by Delegate Michael McDermott
•Officer’s Award signed by the Mayor and City Council of Pocomoke City, Maryland

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