Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By Bryan Hellios
Wakefield — The Michigan State Police announced that 11 troopers from the Upper Peninsula were awarded the Cpl. Samuel A. Mapes Criminal Patrol and Investigation Award, including a local trooper.
Tpr. Alexander L. Sackmann of the Wakefield Post received this award which is only given to the top 5 percent of troopers in each district who look “past the traffic stop.”
Sackmann made 11 felony arrests in 2018 that met the criteria for this award.
Sackmann joined the department in 2017 and came to the Wakefield Post directly out of the 133rd Trooper Recruit School. He is a 2008 graduate of A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer and graduated summa cum laude from Northern Michigan University in 2012, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
He joined the Michigan National Guard in 2009 as a combat engineer with the 107th Engineer Battalion (Upper Peninsula). He was commissioned as an officer in the Engineer Regiment and has served four years active duty, including a tour in Afghanistan, holding the rank of captain. Currently, he is serving as Commander of the 1431 Engineer Company, Michigan National Guard in Calumet.
Sackmann resides in Bessemer, with his wife Emily and daughter Natalie.
Sackmann enjoys working in his hometown.
“I really feel like I get to help people I know, kind of paying back the community — they helped pick me up and raised me, and now I get to give back a little bit and help them out,” Sackmann told the Globe in January 2018.
The award was established to honor Mapes, an early pioneer who was shot and killed after stopping two vehicles he suspected of transporting illegal liquor. The driver of one of the vehicles offered him a bribe, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which he refused. Mapes then stopped a third motorist and asked him to call for assistance. While talking to the motorist the suspect approached him from behind, grabbed his service revolver, and shot him. The suspect fled but was later apprehended and sentenced to life in prison.
Other troopers who were awarded the 2018 Cpl. Mapes Award are:
Randy Rovelsky, Negaunee post; Alan Park, Negaunee Post; Shane Hauff, Negaunee Post; Andrew Peterson, Negaunee Post; Eric Farnsworth, Gladstone Post; Jay Hills, Hometown Security Team; Paul Ferraro, Sault Ste. Marie Post; Samuel Ekola, St. Ignance Post; Cole Hodge, Iron Mountain Post; Nichole Dyson, Calument Post.
Each award recipient receives a special service ribbon to wear on their uniform which has 7 blue stars in honor of Corporal Mapes who was the seventh MSP trooper to die in the line of duty.
All of the troopers were recognized at a ceremony Wednesday in Lansing.
