Pets & Animals

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ― Four San Francisco police officers who responded on Christmas Day 2007 to a fatal mauling by an escaped zoo tiger, and eventually shot and killed it, were given the department's highest award for valor in the line of duty Wednesday evening.

Officers Yukio Oshita, Scott Biggs, Kevin O'Leary and Daniel Kroos were awarded the Gold Medal of Valor by Police Chief Heather Fong at a ceremony at City Hall.

Fong called the officers, as well as eight other officers and one captain who were awarded silver and bronze medals of valor, "our heroes."

"These are the men and women who are out there, serving us, on a daily basis," Fong said.

"They put themselves on the line in order to protect other people in our city," she said.

The Dec. 25, 2007, escape of Tatiana -- a 250-pound Siberian tiger who had only a year before seriously injured a zookeeper during a public feeding -- from her enclosure left 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., of San Jose, dead and two of his friends, brothers Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal, also of San Jose, severely wounded.

Oshita, Biggs, O'Leary and Kroos responded from the Taraval Police Station just after 5 p.m., as the zoo was closing.

Taraval station Capt. Paul Chignell said night was falling and the officers were told the zoo had gone into lockdown, that some zoo visitors were still in danger, and that more than one tiger might be on the loose.

Chignell said the officers were unfamiliar with the zoo grounds and encountered "pandemonium by zoo employees."

After an employee led Biggs and Yoshida to Sousa's body, the officers encountered the tiger at a zoo cafe, next to one of the bloodied Dhaliwal brothers who was screaming for help, Chignell said.

"He looked like he was guarding his prey," Biggs, a seven-year veteran of the force, later described to reporters.

Kroos and O'Leary arrived while Biggs and Yoshida, fearing they might hit the second victim, did not immediately fire, but tried to draw the tiger away by yelling at it.

The tiger then began to advance on Yoshida, who fired and hit the tiger. As the tiger continued to move forward, Kroos and O'Leary also struck the tiger with several rounds, but it kept on coming, forcing Yoshida and Biggs into their police car, Chignell said.

Through an open window, Yoshida fired two more shots and the tiger fell to the ground. Biggs exited and delivered a final shot into the tiger's head, killing it.

The entire episode lasted less than 10 minutes.

"These officers responded with alacrity to a horrific and surreal event at a public facility," said Chignell.

The officers "undoubtedly saved the life of the second victim" and possibly others at the zoo, he said.

Describing the tiger coming at him at "a heavy lope" before he fired, Yoshida, a seven-year veteran, told reporters, "I just decided I had to make a stand."

"It's a scary feeling," he admitted.

Of suddenly being called on to handle an escaped tiger, O'Leary, a five-year veteran, said, "There's no way to think ... to try to fathom, that that kind of thing's going to happen."

"This really is an anomaly," Chignell said. "There's no training with respect to wild animals."

Kroos, also a five-year veteran, said the full impact only dawned on the officers afterward.

"As soon as it was over, we realized the danger we had put ourselves in," he said.

"I don't feel like a hero," said O'Leary.

"I feel like I did what any other officer in my place would do," Kroos agreed.

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)