Cheney police officer honored for heroism

In an instant last June, a man likely saved a boy’s life. That boy lives today, and that man recently received two awards for his heroism.

Sure, Cheney police Officer Zeb Campbell gets paid, but that didn’t stop his whole department and two award organizations from giving him several hefty pats on the back in early November.

Last June, Campbell was the first officer to arrive after a city-operated water truck struck a 15-year-old boy. The boy was not responding, and bleeding from the mouth, according to police reports.

He stopped breathing as Campbell knelt beside him, so the officer carefully tilted the boy’s head to open his airway. The boy began to breathe and was later evacuated by helicopter to the hospital. One doctor later said Campbell’s swift work saved the boy’s life and aided his quick recovery.

“This was my first ‘collision that was possibly a fatality,’ ” Campbell said. “We truly didn’t think he was going to make it.”

Campbell later happened to see the boy in Cheney and was happy to see he’d made a full recovery.

Campbell has worked with the Cheney Police Department for just one year, but has a weighty background as a Spokane paramedic and volunteer firefighter.

“Very likely had it been any other guy they wouldn’t have recognized the stress this young guy was in,” said Lt. Dave Mather.

Mather said Campbell is particularly good at working with the public, handling every call with respect.

Campbell now totes the 2007 Law Enforcement Hero Award from the American Red Cross Hometown Heroes Award, one of 50 awards given to people in different fields in the Inland Northwest.

The American Police Hall of Fame also awarded him the Life Saving Award, a national award given to any officer who saved or likely saved someone’s life.

Campbell grew up in the country near McCall, Idaho, and attended community college in Spokane for a degree in fire science. Campbell said he can’t pinpoint what drives him to work involving rescues.

“I just like to help people,” he said. And no matter how hard you try to put that fateful June day on a pedestal, Campbell maintains, very firmly, that it was just another day in the life.

“That’s my job. That’s what I get paid to do,” he said.