This was an article posted in our local newspaper. It is about my cousin, Shawn Davis, and the horrible accident that took his wife's life this time last year. This man in the picture below pulled our little Titus who is one month older than Nephi from a burning car to save his life.
Here is the original post from that day....
Shawn Davis can hug and hold his 18-month-old son, Titus, thanks to the quick actions of Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Martin, who dove into a burning car on June 4 to pull Titus from the smoldering wreck.
“That little boy right there has made me the happiest of any person in my life,” Shawn said, his voice choked with emotion during a ceremony Tuesday to award Martin with the Medal of Valor. “And he’s still here. Every morning when he wakes up with a full diaper, soaking wet, hungry, crying, I thank God for you for saving my son’s life.”
Sitting nearby, the towheaded Titus didn’t understand strangers’ glances at him during the ceremony and seemed not to notice the crowd’s empathetic smiles in his direction.
“I’m forever in your debt for that. I pray every day for your safety, and I pray every day for my kid’s safety,” Shawn said to Martin.
Tippecanoe County Sheriff Tracy Brown presented Martin with the department’s Medal of Valor for extraordinary acts of courage that endangered the officer’s life.
“The difference between fear and courage is one step,” Brown said. “Randy’s first step on that day was to act and to act with courage and determination.”
“Thank you,” Martin modestly said, downplaying his actions. “I don’t do this job for recognition. I don’t do this job for any other reason than this is where my heart is.”
Martin has been a deputy since 2009 and with the department since 2006, when he started as a dispatcher. He currently is a patrol officer and the department’s K9 officer.
“I come to work with the best of intentions every day that if duty calls, this is what I should do,” Martin said.
Duty called on June 4, when he arrived at the scene of an accident on U.S. 231 in southern Tippecanoe County.
Martin was the first deputy on scene of a three-car accident that killed two people, Brown said. Twenty-three-year-old Kelly Davis’ car was on fire, and Martin and another person emptied their fire extinguishers trying to put out the fire. But the extinguishers only quelled the flames temporarily, so Martin used the empty extinguisher to smash out windows to get to the trapped mother and her infant son in the car.
He climbed through the back window, found then 7-month-old Titus, unstrapped him from the car seat and passed him to people outside the car. Unfortunately, Kelly — Titus’ mother and Shawn’s wife of three months — died.
“Fortunately, Titus is still with us,” Martin said, “and hopefully, he will continue to grow and celebrate many, many, more birthdays and be safe, happy and healthy.”
Titus is that blessing that Shawn celebrates every day.
“It’s an honor and a blessing to stand next to you,” Shawn said to Martin Tuesday morning.
