Valor Awards
Bronze Medal of Valor
Sergeant Christopher M. Cummings Bellmawr Local 375
When off-duty calls
Nobody was happier to be here more than Bellmawr Local 375’ s Christopher Cummings. For the way Cummings put himself in harm’ s way on Sept. 1, 2016 – off duty no less – his opportunity to be present certainly accentuated the celebration taking place at the PBA’ s annual Atlantic City Valor extravaganza.
“ I want to thank the New Jersey State PBA for recognizing what I did on Sept. 1 and bringing me here with my family,” Cummings honored.“ And bless all the officers for what they do.”
Just being here is a blessing for Cummings and his family. Talk about returning to the scene of the crime: Cummings brought his kids to Atlantic City on this Thursday before Labor Day, and they were doing a little shopping at the Tanger outlets – the area known as“ The Walk” – when Cummings walked into a store and into an active-shooter situation.
A suspect, 55-year-old Luis Maisonet, entered the store with a gun in his hand, shot another man and then turned the gun on himself. After securing his family, Cummings immediately advanced on Maisonet and wrestled the firearm from the subject’ s possession. He then maintained control of the suspect
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until backup arrived and took Maisonet into custody.
After more than a year and receiving many honors, including being a guest of Atlantic City Mayor Donald Guardian at a concert on the beach that Labor Day weekend, Cummings has done his best to put the incident in the rear-view mirror. And the sense of duty that enabled him to act that day has also allowed him to maintain a valuable perspective on his heroics.
“ I guess there’ s still a little bit of shock,” Cummings relates.“ I wasn’ t expecting it. You’ re just shopping, and things go out of control. But you look at it as a positive outcome overall. I was able to get out of the situation without my family getting hurt, without anyone else getting hurt and without myself getting hurt.”
During the past year, Cummings has contemplated what makes a law enforcement officer jump into the fray on his day off with his kids in tow. He nods to the fact that officers who have been on the job for a long time like he has, and who have had the high caliber of overall training like so many valor award winners have, don’ t even give it a second thought.
“ I think it’ s more you react before you think,” Cummings submits.“ If you think about it, I did put myself in a bad situation. But you just do what you know, and you know it was the right thing to do.”
Even more than a year after the response, Cummings tries to deflect the accolades. Accordingly, he came to the Valor Awards to bask in the glow of the evening rather than the glory. He came to applaud his sisters and brothers being honored as loudly as they clapped for him.
“ We do the job for a long time and there’ s not a lot of recognition, unfortunately,” Cummings elaborated.“ When you get a chance, however, it’ s nice to be rewarded for what you have done.”
Perhaps as a final look back on his bravery, Cummings offered the most important perspective of what to take away from that Thursday afternoon.
“ You’ re never really off duty,” he asserts.“ You always have to be aware and try to be prepared.” d