Honoring the Bravery of Police Officer Mark Mroz.

WHEREAS, The Council of Philadelphia is pleased and proud to honor Police Officer Mark Mroz, community relations officer in the 2nd Police District for his heroic deeds on the afternoon of Friday, July 27, 2007 when his quick actions saved the life of a two year boy; and

WHEREAS, On that afternoon an hysterical Jasim Olibrice ran into the 2nd Police District holding his 23 month old nephew and begged for help; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mark Mroz heard the commotion and ran up and took the child from Olobrice and immediately began to perform CPR and asked his captain to call an ambulance; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mroz realized that the child was having a seizure, had stopped breathing and had become unconscious; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mroz revived the boy twice with CPR, with help from Police Officer Stepaine Ahrndt before the ambulance arrived about eight minutes later; and

WHEREAS, The boy, Kinji, was rushed to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he was treated and released that night; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mroz has been nominated for the Officer of the month award by his Sergeant, Frank Barclay, who was witness to the incident; and

WHEREAS, A few days after this incident Officer Mroz and Officer Ahrndt was reunited with a happy and smiling Kenji who had completely recovered from the incident; and

WHEREAS, NBC 10’s Edie Huggins remarked that “it was a day that Kinji will probably never remember, but it’s a day that his family and police officers of the 2nd District will probably never forget”; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mroz has been praised for his quick action that saved a boy’s life, he responds with “I was in the right place at the right time and I was just doing my job”; and

WHEREAS, Police Officer Mroz is an 11 year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Force lives in the Northeast Philadelphia with his wife and six year old daughter; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby recognize and congratulate Police Officer Mark Mroz for his bravery and quick action which saved the life of a two year old Philadelphia resident.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Police Officer Mroz as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.

End