Velez-Cantres named Apopka Police Officer of the year

In 2016, 140 police officers and 25 K-9's lost their lives in the United States. That's up 10% from 2015. The officer's average age was 41-years-old with 13 years of service. Locally two officers from the Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office died in the line of duty just last month.

"2016 was a tragic year for law enforcement officers, said Apopka Police Chief Michael McKinley. "And unfortunately, 2017 has not gotten off to a great start either."

Everyone in law enforcement deserves an award for putting their lives on the line for the benefit of public safety.

And on Friday night, a few of them did.

The Apopka Police Department came together to honor those who provided outstanding service to Apopka at the 2016 APD Annual Awards Program. The event was held at Highland Manor.

Pastor Freddie Filmore of Freedom Ministries gave the Invocation, The Apopka Police Honor Guard performed the Posting of the Colors.

Officer Josean Velez-Cantres was named Officer of the year.

On June 12, 2016, Velez-Cantres responded to a call at the Pulse Night Club shooting in Orlando during what turned out to be the worst mass casualty shooting in United States history. Officer Velez-Cantres, also a member of the Central Florida Metro SWAT team, was one of 35 officers that entered the club and assisted with the rescue and evacuation of the victims who had been shot and severely injured.

Two days later, while on his back to Apopka from an event in Orlando, he was flagged down by a family whose son was having a seizure. Velez-Cantres stopped, got the family immediate medical assistance their son needed, and stayed with them to calm them down.

“We were terrified and borderline helpless…until you came along,” said the boy’s mother in an email a few days later. “Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, our family can’t say thank you enough. My dad served as a K-9 cop for half of his career and we often say they don’t make cops like they used to, but you sir, proved us wrong.”

Velez-Cantres also assisted with the arrest of seven felony suspects while utilizing his full-service K-9, “Honor”. Four of those arrests were for burglary and three arrests were for felony drug possession such as cocaine and heroin. Along with being a member of the APD, Central Florida Metro SWAT Team, he is also a part of the APD’s Honor Guard.

Other award recipients were Officer Christopher Heath Wood (Rookie of the Year), LaNay Rodriguez (Civilian of the Year), Sergeant Paul Downs (Supervisor of the Year) and Melissa Engley (Communications Technician of the Year).

Thanks APD for all that you do to keep Apopka safe.