Thursday night -- less than two weeks before Christmas -- Greencastle resident Malcolm Pilkin was in the City Council audience, fixated on what was unfolding at the City Hall podium. His wife, seated at his side, wiped back tears, knowing his presence was her present.

For without quick responses of three Greencastle City Police officers on Thanksgiving Day, Pilkin might not have even made it through to see the turkey carved, let alone the tree trimmed. And the holidays certainly would have taken on new meaning in the Pilkin family.

The incident of interest began to unfold in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22), Police Chief Tom Sutherlin said in reporting that GPD officers, along with other emergency services personnel, were dispatched to 864 N. Jackson St., "where an individual was reported on the floor, unresponsive and not breathing."

Capt. Charles Inman and Officers Zach Rhine and Elsiana Crosby were the first to arrive on the scene, a couple blocks north of GPD. There they soon learned the person on the floor was Malcolm Pilkin, who works as a crossing guard for the Greencastle Police Department...