2018 NJSPBA Valor Awards
Civilian Gold Medal
Luke Heagen
Francis Cicala
Ryan Dineen
Nominated by Seaside Heights Local 252
The Rescuers
Weekly movie night on the beach at
Seaside Heights on July 12 figured to be
one of those great family events. “Juman-
ji: Welcome to the Jungle” was on the bill,
and the Boro of Seaside Heights’ special
events crew of Luke Heagen, Frank Cicala
and Ryan Dineen had begun setting up the
beach for viewing as the sun creeped down
the horizon.
Suddenly, a man came running onto the
beach.
“He was yelling that his girlfriend was
struggling in the water,” Dineen recount-
ed. “And he said he couldn’t go out and save
her because he couldn’t swim.”
Without hesitation, the three boys re-
sponded in a fashion that might be worthy
of a PBA Gold Medal of Valor or a Lifesaving
Award. These were the type of young men
who would do the PBA’s Civilian Gold Med-
al proud.
And they did.
Heagen and Dineen sprinted into the
water “Baywatch” style. Cicala called the
police and then followed. They battled the
surf to get 50 yards out where the woman
was struggling. “It was about 7:30 p.m. The waters were
pretty calm,” Heagen described. “We’re
used to those waters.”
Indeed, the trek out to the woman
proved to be no trouble for all three.
“We’re all pretty good swimmers,”
Dineen added. “We grew up on the beach,
so we were pretty confident.”
When the three rescuers reached the
woman, they said she appeared to be ine-
briated. Dineen took one side; Heagen
took the other. Cicala pushed from behind.
Within a few minutes, they had her on the
beach and everybody was OK.
For Heagen, 18, a freshman at the Uni-
versity of South Carolina, Dineen, 18, who
will be leaving to join the Navy in March
and wants to become a SEAL, and Cica-
la, 17, a junior at Toms River North High
School, the incident was more cool than
harrowing. It was the type of cool that
might make them good law enforcement
officers in the future.
When asked what they learned from
their rescue, they already sound like offi-
cers.
“I learned that it’s very important to help people when they are in need,” Cicala
commented.
They were treated like officers at the Val-
or Awards. The ovation they received was
worthy of heroes.
“I wouldn’t say we are heroes,” Dineen
said.
Added Heagen: “There’s a lot of people
in this room who did a lot more than we
did, to say the least.”
Still, from movie night to a scene straight
out of a movie. “Seaside Heights: Welcome
to the Rescue.”
RESOURCEFUL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46 blocking the door in the small bathroom.
He heard another shot fired and attempted
once again to knock down the door to give
DeGrandis backup.
“I finally got the door open,” Bopp ex-
plained. “Mark was up against the wall, and
all I saw were two hands. One was around
his throat and the other was on his gun.”
“He was trying to disarm me,” DeGran-
dis added. “In the back of my mind was the
fact that we had a screener with us from the
PESS unit. She’s a civilian. Making sure that
she was safe too was also extremely import-
ant.”
DeGrandis continued to fight back and
maneuvered his body to fall into the bath-
tub, giving Bopp an opportunity to take ac-
tion. As soon as he had a clear view of the
suspect, Bopp fired at the aggressor and
ended the attack.
Bopp and DeGrandis had spent years
training together, both as school resource
officers practicing how to deal with aggres- sive or armed suspects and as members of
Local 137 participating in drills on self-de-
fense and clearing buildings. It was clear
that all of their training came together when
these officers needed it most that day, and
their courageous actions led them to walk
away from the incident unharmed.
“It’s a lesson on complacency and a re-
minder to take every call very seriously,”
stressed DeGrandis.
It’s still hard for DeGrandis’ wife, Heather,
to reflect the danger that her husband and
her close friend Bopp were put in that day.
But the DeGrandis and Bopp families agree
that what they’ve gained is a lifelong bond
between two heroes who persevered and
their wives, who will forever be grateful that
they returned home from work that day.
“I cannot put into words how awful that
day was, but they’re alive and they’re safe,
and that’s all that matters,” Heather attest-
ed. “The four of us will be together forever.”
needed to get to the hospital as soon as she
could.
“He had been a police officer for 17 years,”
Kim noted about her husband. “I didn’t feel
like a cop’s wife until that day.”
There was no answer at the door when
Bopp, DeGrandis and the PESS official ar-
rived to check in on the resident, who was
known to be mentally unstable. Due to the
individual’s history, the officers had a key
to enter the apartment and performed a
search for the resident. The resident was
nowhere to be found—until Bopp and De-
Grandis spotted feet under the doorway of a
bathroom linen closet.
“I could see the shoes through the crack,”
Bopp remembered. “[DeGrandis] point-
ed at it, and the next thing I knew the door
slammed and there was a gunshot.”
Bopp immediately tried to gain entry,
but DeGrandis and the suspect’s body were
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