Listen: Eric Zahren President of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission March 17, 2020, award announcement Douglas Leroy Tallman, Sr. A barber college student was eating breakfast with his family Feb. 27, 2019, at a Sacramento, Calif., diner when he saw a man pointing a pistol at the 19-year-old server at a register in the front of the restaurant. Douglas Leroy Tallman, Sr., 34, of Marysville, Calif., left his booth and walked toward the cashier. As he passed the man, he grasped the assailant’s hand that was holding the gun and wrapped his arm around the assailant’s throat. The two men struggled, Tallman taking the assailant to the floor. The server fled from the building. As Tallman’s adolescent son approached, the gun discharged a single bullet, fragments striking him in the calf and foot. Tallman pushed the assailant away and took cover nearby. The assailant struggled to his feet, grabbed money, and fled. He was later arrested. The server was not injured. Tallman’s son was treated for his wounds and recovered.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this first announcement of 2020 recipients, a total of 10,153 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow said each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant. Throughout the 116 years since the Fund was established by industrialist philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $41.7 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.