Officers Saluted for Risking Their Lives : Law enforcement: Seven members of the LAPD are awarded the Medal of Valor for their heroic acts.

They braved flames inside a burning apartment building to save a boy and his uncle. They dodged gunfire in a shootout to save a 12-year-old hostage. They stopped a man who in a rage held a gun to his own baby’s head and threatened to pull the trigger.

For these brave deeds, seven Los Angeles police officers Wednesday received the department’s highest honor--the Medal of Valor.

In a ceremony attended by more than 600 police officers and community leaders, Police Chief Willie L. Williams hailed the men as heroes. He also used the opportunity to counteract some of the criticism that has besieged the department since the Rodney G. King beating and the 1992 riots.

“These awards are special, especially with all the problems and concerns that have been heaped upon . . . this department,” Williams said. “It’s nice when the larger community can take time out and say, ‘Thank you.’ ”

Among those honored at the gathering at the Westin Bonaventure hotel were several of the department’s sharpest shooters, a grizzled veteran who thought he had seen it all and a rookie who had seen very little.

Hundreds of Los Angeles police officers were considered this year for the award, but only the seven officers met the most important criteria: All put their lives in danger to help others.

These are their stories:

It was after midnight Aug. 24, 1992.

Officer Peter Casey had only been with the department about a year when he and his partner, Ernest Jimenez, saw flames shooting out of an apartment complex in South-Central Los Angeles.

The two men smashed their way through the building’s locked doors and windows to give the residents a means of escape. They shined their flashlights down blackened hallways and yelled for victims to “follow the light to safety.”

Casey and Jimenez climbed onto the second floor of the burning building after residents told them an 8-year-old boy and his uncle were trapped inside.

On his hands and knees, Jimenez, 31, made his way through thick smoke until he reached the boy, who was passed out on the floor. “I picked him up and ran,” Jimenez said.

Meanwhile, Casey, 31, found the boy’s uncle nearby and carried him to safety. “The floor was actually burning beneath us,” Casey said. “You could actually hear the walls breathe. That’s when it hit me, ‘Why am in here?’ It’s something I still dream about. I don’t think it is something that will ever leave my mind.”

The next day the Police Department and the two officers were credited with saving 18 lives. “I don’t feel like a hero,” Jimenez said before receiving his medal. “I guess I just feel lucky to have been there to get the people out.”

On April 30, 1993, award recipients Hilton Henry and Stephen Kehoe found themselves trying to arrest a robber under extraordinary circumstances.

Henry, 31, had seen the suspect walking with a gun on Western Avenue in Hollywood. As Henry drove toward the man, the suspect ran into a residential area and grabbed a 12-year-old girl playing in a yard.

Placing a pistol to the girl’s head, the man said he would shoot if Henry did not drop his gun. As the officer retreated, the suspect made a dash for Henry’s unattended car and drove off with the girl.

While Henry ran after the car, Kehoe, 50, arrived to provide backup. The officers exchanged more than 45 rounds of gunfire with the suspect, crashed the car and was arrested. The girl escaped unharmed.

The award recipients included three members of the LAPD’s SWAT team.

On the morning of Oct. 20, 1992, Officers Robert Bennyworth, 48, Joe Cordova, 39, and Ruben Ornelas, 37, were called in to assist in a hostage situation.

A man who had spent the night using cocaine had stormed into his wife’s apartment and grabbed his 3-year-old daughter.

For several hours, the man fired shots at police officers and reporters and dared police to take action as he threatened again and again to kill “the baby.” Finally, SWAT officers decided that the man was going to kill the child if someone didn’t kill him first.

Officers stormed the apartment and found the man in a bathtub, where he was holding the girl in front of his face and screaming, “I kill baby! I kill baby.”

They officers begged him to pause for a moment, pleading with him to put the girl down. The man hesitated and peered around his daughter.

From seven feet away, Cordova fired one shot. The bullet struck the man beneath the eye, killing him instantly.

“I know it’s a cliche, but we were just doing our job,” Ornelas said.