{"id":24436,"date":"2024-12-12T20:36:37","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T03:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purple-heart-and-medal-of-honor-posthumously-awarded-to-cortez-sgt-michael-moran\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:54:01","slug":"purple-heart-and-medal-of-honor-posthumously-awarded-to-cortez-sgt-michael-moran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purple-heart-and-medal-of-honor-posthumously-awarded-to-cortez-sgt-michael-moran\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple Heart and Medal of Honor posthumously awarded to Cortez Sgt. Michael Moran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sgt.
Sgt. Michael Moran\u2019s two daughters, Katalina (left) and Novelynn, accept the Purple Heart and Medal of Honor, which were posthumously awarded to Moran at the Dec. 10 City Council meeting. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez Police Department posthumously awarded Sgt. Michael Moran a Purple Heart and Medal of Honor at the Cortez City Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

His two daughters, Katalina and Novelynn Moran, accepted the awards on his behalf.<\/p>\n

Four representatives from the police department, the mayor, mayor pro tem and all five City Council members stood before the council\u2019s platform to present the awards.<\/p>\n

Lt. Rogelio Maynard began the ceremony by defining what a Purple Heart is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awarded to employees who suffer serious on-line injury and line of duty death caused by an active aggressor,\u201d Maynard said.<\/p>\n

Interim Police Chief Andy Brock spoke next.<\/p>\n

Brock said Moran had \u201cdemonstrated remarkable courage and dedication to duty,\u201d on Nov. 29, 2023, when he was \u201cambushed by a driver who exited his vehicle\u201d during a routine traffic stop and opened fired on Moran.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Interim Chief of Police Andy Brock speaks to a full room of community members as he and three other representatives from the police department posthumously award Sgt. Michael Moran a Purple Heart and Medal of Honor. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Despite being struck multiple times, Moran was able to draw his weapon and fire, Brock said.<\/p>\n

And for that bravery, the department awarded him the Purple Heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Medal of Honor is the highest award this office presents in recognition of personal bravery,\u201d said Detective Lt. Angelo Martinez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt recognizes employees who have risked their lives in the line of duty and performed above and beyond the required scope of duty while protecting the lives of others,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Brock went on to say that \u201ceven while mortally wounded, he (Moran) exhibited the highest level of courage, selflessness and dedication to the preservation of life. His conduct that day epitomized the ultimate commitment to public safety and service. We are grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Brock invited Moran\u2019s daughters to the front of the room to accept the two awards.<\/p>\n

Katalina and Novelynn made their way to the front of the room, accepted the awards and shook the hands of those from the police department and City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you all for being here for that,\u201d Cortez Mayor Rachel Medina said to wrap up the ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

daughters accept the awards at City Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78534,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24436\/revisions\/78534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24436"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}