Officer Dontae Malone says he doesn?t feel like a hero. But his actions at the Maryland House of Correction prison in Jessup tell a different story.
It was there in March 2006 that Malone rescued a fellow officer being stabbed by inmates ? a rescue that earned him the nation?s highest award for valor this week.
“I don?t feel as though it was a heroic act,” Malone said Tuesday after receiving the Medal of Valor from the American Correctional Association in Tampa, Fla. “I just feel like I was doing my job. My job requires me to assist when a fellow officer is in danger, and that?s what I did.”
Malone, 24, a Baltimore resident who graduated from Southwestern High School, had been on the job just three months on March 29, 2006 when he heard an officer yelling on a tier above him at the maximum-security prison in Jessup.
Upon arriving, he found inmates seriously injuring another officer.
Malone immediately intervened, saving his colleague?s life but suffering many stab wounds in the process. The inmates involved were all charged, thanks to Malone?s identification.
“I ran to his rescue and I pulled him out,” Malone said, recalling the attack. “They were stabbing him up, and I got stabbed up in the process.”
Malone suffered serious injuries from the attack, including four stab wounds to the head and 10 in his back. He was even stabbed in the lung, causing the organ to collapse.
“I got the worst of it,” he said.
The attack began with three inmates but eventually included eight, Malone said.
Maj. Priscilla Doggett, a prison spokeswoman, said many officers eventually responded to the scene after the prison issued a distress code, but Malone?s immediate actions stood out.
“He was trying to pull the co-worker out of the area and fight off the attackers,” she said.
Malone was hospitalized for more than a week after the attack with injuries that kept him off the job for seven months.
His psychologist still has not released him to return to work.
The Medal of Valor is an honor awarded only for the highest acts of courage in life-and-death situations.
“The incident was tragic, but, at the same time, I?m proud of what I did,” Malone said.
“If I could change time and go back, I wouldn?t change a thing. I would do it again.”
