The Alabama Legislature today recognized eight law enforcement officers for life-saving deeds and other heroics in the line of duty during the last year.

Bibb County Deputy Brad Johnson, who was fatally shot last June in pursuit of a suspect, was posthumously awarded the Legislative Medal of Honor for Law Enforcement. Bibb County Deputy Chris Poole, who was shot while pursuing the same suspect, was also awarded the Medal of Honor.

Others who were recognized as nominees at today’s ceremony in the State House:

• Jefferson County Deputy School Resource Officer Darrius Black, who in December conducted an investigation to find a student carrying a loaded handgun and removed that student from the classroom.
• Morgan County Deputies Jerry Bingman, Jacob Boenig, and Kel Roberts, who rescued a victim from a house fire in Decatur in May.
• Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department Corporal Derrick Riego, who was recognized for swift actions that saved the life of Deputy Skylar Campbell after Campbell had incidental contact with what was believed to be fentanyl during a traffic stop and went into respiratory distress. That happened in April.
• Alabama State Trooper Charles May, who in January rescued a hunter, David Washburn, who had been caught in rushing waters from a collapsed beaver dam and was suffering from severe hypothermia.

In April, the Legislature passed the Deputy Brad Johnson Act, which cut back on correctional incentive time for state prisoners, called “good time.” The man charged in Johnson’s death, Austin Patrick Hall, has a long criminal record but had accumulated more than 2,000 days of good time while incarcerated, the Associated Press reported. The Deputy Brad Johnson Act cut back on how quickly inmates could shave time of their sentences and made other changes to the correctional incentive time law.

Poole, Johnson’s former colleague who had come to the State House to support that bill, was back today to accept the Medal of Honor. Johnson’s daughters, Lana Johnson, 13, and Livy Johnson, 6, joined Poole on the House floor for the ceremony. Other officers from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Department watched the ceremony from the House gallery.

“I want to thank y’all,” Poole said after receiving the award. “It’s been tough. But we’re going to get through it. And we’re a great state. We’re a great state.”