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Washington • Nathan Hutchinson didn't hesitate when asked if he'd do it again.
"Yeah," the Weber County sheriff's lieutenant said. "You know, getting shot didn't hurt that bad."
Actually he was shot five times during a 2012 drug raid gone awry in Ogden, but was still able to pull two officers to safety, an act that earned him the Medal of Valor, the nation's highest award for public-safety officers.
At the White House on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden draped the medal over Hutchinson's neck as he joined an elite group of recipients — including the Watertown, Mass., officers who engaged in a shootout with a Boston bombing suspect — who have earned the honor for heroic acts.
Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder heralded the officers from across the country for their efforts that saved lives at their own risk.
"You always run to the sound of danger, you don't run away from it, you run to it, even though you know … anything can be on the other end," Biden told the officers. "You put your lives in a position where you put somebody else's life above yours.
"You're a rare breed, you're all crazy," Biden added. "We love you for it. We need you. You are the best thing we have going for us."
Though Wednesday's ceremony paid homage to those who went beyond their duties in the name of public safety, it came at a time when law-enforcement agencies in America are facing criticism for heavy handed tactics and race relations, a point that Holder addressed to an audience of uniform-clad officers and their families.
"Each of these award citations serves as a stirring testament — and a fitting reminder, at a time when this country is grappling with deep challenges involving public safety, law enforcement, and community engagement — that the work being done by those who guard our neighborhoods and protect our nation is exceptional, essential and extraordinary," Holder said. "I am honored, and humbled, to call you partners and colleagues in the service of this country and the protection of its citizens."
The White House said Hutchinson was picked for the medal for his part in helping two fellow officers out of an Ogden home that was the target of a drug raid. One officer, Jared Francom, later died after being shot by Matthew David Stewart.
There was no mention in the ceremony that the raid itself became controversial after questions arose about the case targeting a man who was, essentially, a low-level marijuana grower. The family and others complained that officers — clad in jeans, hoodies and, in one case, a Cheech and Chong T-shirt — didn't adquately identify themselves as police when entering the home.
Authorities said the "knock-and-announce" requirements of the warrant were followed, but acknowledged there were a number of other mistakes — including holes in the investigation leading up to the raid and that several of the officers were not wearing bulletproof vests and were harboring the incorrect belief that the house was vacant at the time.
Defense attorneys for Stewart, who later killed himself in jail awaiting trial, had argued Stewart thought it was a home invasion.
Wednesday's ceremony held to basic details, with Biden noting that all the cases for which the medals were awarded involved grave risk to the officers who acted.
"Whether it was facing a hail of gunfire to rescue [two] narcotics agents in Utah, or dragging a state trooper from a burning car in Knoxville, the interesting thing about y'all is you acted instinctively, without hesitation," Biden said.
Hutchinson, who on Tuesday visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington where Francom's name is now inscribed, said Biden's point rings true. He just acted.
"I never even thought about it," Hutchinson says. "It just kept happening and I never had a conscious thought like, 'I better stop.' … I wasn't going to leave anyone in there to get executed."
Other honorees Wednesday included two officers who responded to a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, FBI agents who rescued a 5-year-old child being held hostage and a firefighter who, arriving at a burning house before the firetrucks, used an old broken ladder and a filing cabinet to reach a second-floor window, punched through the glass with his bare hands and rescued an elderly woman trapped inside.