(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen in front, stands with (left to right) prosecutor Joe Frandino, SSPD Sgt. Angela McGovern and Investigator Justin Ahigian.
In her first three minutes responding to a call on Caroline Street in August last year, Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Angela McGovern applied a tourniquet that likely saved a man’s life, called in emergency services, and instructed officers to cordon off the crime scene all while asking witnesses if they knew what happened.
Caught on her body camera, she walks up to a group of men on Caroline Street and then pushes through to stand in front of the swaying victim. As two hold him in place, one from behind, the other on his left side holding his arm, a small handful of others stand around. All are talking or calling for help.
“Where’s he stabbed?” she asks as she approaches.
“In the arm. In the arm.”
"He slit him, the dude slit him,” a witness says. Others talk over each other.
“Hey, somebody’s got to help me, he’s going to fall,” says the man holding the victim from behind. The victim sways, his head hangs and lolls. No one wants to give the sergeant much room.
“OK guys, let me put the tourniquet on, alright? Can you guys back up so I can help him, please?” the sergeant says more than asks. She tries to slide the tourniquet up his left arm, which is sliced open from his shoulder to his elbow, his hand covered in blood.
“I gave him my shirt and everything. I was trying to cut the circulation off,” a third man says.
She radios in, telling emergency personnel “to get here now.”
“I just — Sir — I need room to work. Please help me help him,” she says again and moves to place the tourniquet.
Another officer arrives, and she says, “Tape off the scene for me.”
She drops her flashlight accidentally, yet at the same time is asking the guys standing around if they know the victim or the person who attacked him. They say they do not, but at least for now, they are lying.
One man thinks she is interrupting, while another says, “No, she’s putting on the tourniquet.” They give her room to work.
She says out loud moments later that the tourniquet has been applied, and, following procedure, she marks the time.
That initial action, the initial command of the situation, is what won McGovern the 2021 Public Service Award from Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen. She was honored along with Investigator Justin Ahigian.
While watching the replay of the body cam video that helped imprison Chalmers Davis for Assault in the First Degree, Attempted Assault in the First Degree, Assault in the Second Degree, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree, McGovern said she was surprised at the depravity that people can put on one another.
“We need to make a concentrated effort to be better human beings to each other,” she said at the ceremony recognizing her.
Earlier this month, Judge Jeff Murphy sentenced Davis to 40 years in state prison, and credited McGovern for saving the man’s life, which kept Davis from facing a murder charge.
She said that extensive SSPD training gives officers the muscle memory in a situation such as this.
The arrest and prosecution took more than those first few minutes, however,
“Although I am singling Sergeant McGovern out for her dedication and commitment to the support of crime victims, I want to emphasize that this is very much a team effort," Heggen said in a statement and reiterated at the ceremony.
Investigator Justin Ahigian was also awarded for his work.
“With one radio transmission, he knew who the suspect was, let us know where to go to find other pieces of valuable evidence, and then was able to get some coworkers in to assist to secure every location and piece of evidence that was needed,” Heggen said at the ceremony. The investigators often work in the background or undercover, but “What they do is really valuable to our department.”
Heggen also thanked prosecutor Joe Frandino. She said Ahigian and Frandino gathered scared witnesses, collecting their testimony and then getting them to testify at trial.
"The investigate didn't stop that night. It took weeks and months," Heggen said. Frandino concurred that it was the work of the investigators and the dedication by the team after that night that finally put Davis away.