Bonney Lake officers compete for Kessner Cup marksmanship awards

When the shooting stopped at Swiss Park shooting range, the Bonney Lake Police Department had two winners of the Kessner Cup awards for marksmanship.

Officer Nathan Vance took the top pistol and top overall awards at the Dec. 11 competition. Officer Brian VanSickle was the top rifle shooter.

The Kessner Cup was named in honor or Mark Kessner, a Bonney Lake police officer for 24 years. Kessner died Dec. 20, 2001, shortly after retiring from the force.

Last year, Sgt. Ron Sasaki and Officer Mark Koehn set up the Kessner Cup program, which is part of the quarterly firearms training for the department officers.

Sasaki said the program involves marksmanship, target identification and weapons manipulations along with pistol and rifle malfunction training. During the competition the officer are placed in high stress situations with physical demands and compressed time limits to preform the action.

In one training event, the officers stood about 20 feet back from white board covered with pictures of people. The officers are shown a photograph of one individual on the board, but the person in the photo looks dramatically different because of hairstyle, makeup or clothing. The officers are given a life-threatening scene and they are to find the correct person and fire.

“We are trying to prepare the officers for the street,” Sasaki said. “The idea is to set up a worst case scenario.”

The Kessner Cup awards were announced Dec. 14 at a year-end gathering for the department.

Other awards presented at the event included VanSickle and Officer James Keller receiving the Life Saving Award.

Police Chief Mike Mitchell said the two were honored following their actions during a fatal two-boat collision Sept. 29 on Lake Tapps. The officers secured a resident’s boat and went out to help the injured.

“They went above and beyond to help and they put their own lives at risk to save others,” Mitchell said.

Officer Rob Hoag received the Police Officer Of The Year award. Mitchell said he led the department in “DUI (driving under the influence) enforcement.”

The Support Services Award was present to Officer Steve Flaherty.

Mitchell said the Chief’s Award went to VanSickle for his work in founding the K-9 drug dog program in the department and “for all the things he does on a daily basis with a smile on his face.”

Reach Dennis Box at dbox@courierherald.com or 360-802-8209.