King, Sederwall earn state's highest honor for life-saving effort

Night of fire and valor

Officers Jason Sederwall, left, and Brad King, right, pose for a 2014 photo with Katherine O'Neal in the Governor's office in the Capitol. Sederwall and King were the recipients of the Missouri's Medal of Valor after saving O'Neal from a burning car on Dec. 10, 2013.
Officers Jason Sederwall, left, and Brad King, right, pose for a 2014 photo with Katherine O'Neal in the Governor's office in the Capitol. Sederwall and King were the recipients of the Missouri's Medal of Valor after saving O'Neal from a burning car on Dec. 10, 2013.

Dec. 10, 2013 - just 53 weeks and two days ago - turned out to be a very extraordinary day in the lives of three Jefferson City employees.

Katherine O'Neal doesn't remember it - but the two Jefferson City police officers who saved her life that night do remember, and were honored Thursday with Missouri's Medal of Valor.

Gov. Jay Nixon said it's the "state's highest public safety award," as he presented 10 of them Thursday to law officers from around Missouri.

"We are honoring those who carried out acts of extraordinary valor last year," the governor said. "In each of these instances, law enforcement officers receiving this commendation clearly put their own lives at risk - at extreme risk, quite frankly - on behalf of their fellow Missourians."

O'Neal, now 29, Holts Summit, was turning onto Missouri 94 from Wehmeyer Drive - in front of the ABB plant - around 5:27 p.m. on that Tuesday last year when her Jeep and another Jeep collided.

Hers caught on fire, with O'Neal trapped inside - her legs and hips pinned inside the wreckage - and her legs burning.

Ultimately, she would have third-degree burns over almost half of her body, several fractured bones and a collapsed lung. Pneumonia quickly would become a problem for her treatment.

Brad King got to the accident first and began using his fire extinguisher to put out the flames shooting 10 feet above O'Neal's car.

"When I showed up, it was all reactionary as to what I was seeing and what I thought needed to be done," he said after Thursday's ceremony.

Jason Sederwall was at the police station when the accident occurred, and told reporters: "I remember thinking the whole way over there, "Could this trip be any longer?'

"I knew Brad was on the scene already."

Sederwall grabbed his fire extinguisher and tried to help put out the fire or, at least, do what they could to keep flames away from O'Neal.

"I knew we had to do something," he said. "When I got there, all I could see was the car in the middle of the road, and the flames."

They couldn't get the car doors open.

When the extinguishers emptied and the fire raged on, King - who is 7 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed 320 pounds - squeezed through the window on the door behind the driver.

"I guess I fold well," he quipped Thursday - later recalling he was "really sore" the day after the rescue.

Sederwall got into the Jeep from the passenger side.

In separate interviews, both men said they didn't communicate with each other, but focused on saving O'Neal.

"I guess the training just kicked in," Sederwall said.

King said: "We knew we had to try to get her out of the fire - or keep the fire away from her - until the fire department got there."

Sederwall said: "Time just seemed to stand still."

The Jefferson City firefighters who reached the accident have agreed O'Neal would be dead if King and Sederwall had not gotten there first.

O'Neal agrees.

"Had it not been for their quick thinking and their willingness to put their full force forward - I wouldn't be here," O'Neal said after Thursday's ceremony. "It's extraordinary what they did that night. They put themselves in harm's way.

"Nowhere in their employee guide does it say that you're going to put on a polyester uniform and crawl into a burning Jeep. But they did it. And they didn't think twice. And they're so humble about it."

Both officers insist what they did was just a part of their jobs.

"The whole experience has been humbling," King said.

Both King - who since has moved to Washington County, Oregon, where he works for the sheriff's department - and Sederwall said they're thrilled and encouraged to see how well O'Neal has recovered in the past year. She spent last spring in a wheelchair and with extra medical hardware, then went back to work as a city health inspector part-time in June and full-time in August.

Missouri has presented the Medal of Valor each year since 2008, based on recommendations from a review board that considers many stories submitted to the state.

Nixon said all those stories are compelling - the 10 who receive "this highest honor" and the "dozens, if not hundreds, of others" where officers also "have stepped into harm's way."

Jefferson City Police Chief Roger Schroeder serves on the review board. "Each ceremony gives me chills," he said. "I'm very proud to be a law enforcement person (and) to work with people who are so dedicated, and so unselfish and so courageous - it's just a special day."