The Heroes Among Us were honored Tuesday evening by Waterloo Regional Police during their annual awards ceremony. Three members of the Conestoga Mall security team have been honored. Police say his courageous actions helped ensure public safety and quickly arrest the suspects. “It’s nice to be recognized and it was a pleasant surprise when I received the letter in the mail,” said award winner Weston Cordeiro.

Three brave security team members stepped in to try to stop a violent robbery at the Conestoga Mall in February 2023. The suspects, armed with hammers, injured one person. Chaos broke out before police arrived. “It feels good. I mean, just knowing that you are recognized for doing something positive in the community,” said one of the members of the responding security team, Stefan Despotovic.

Each year, regional police reward those who go “above and beyond” in the name of community safety.

“This is an evening to really recognize the great work of not only our uniformed members, but also our civilian professionals, communicators who all contribute to making this community safe and at the same time, we have the opportunity to recognize the members of our community all in one. night,” said WRPS Detective Kyle Lambert.

People like Andrew Hook who stopped a man from stabbing a woman and Carrie McCollum who pulled a trapped man from a burning vehicle. “We cannot do our work without the partnership and support of our community,” Lambert said.

Some of those who were honored said they would do it again. “I obviously appreciate the honor of being nominated, but at the end of the day, we were just trying to do our job that day and we were just trying to, you know, keep the public safe,” Hayden said Lindner.

Even after receiving this recognition, Lindner remained humble. “I’m sure there are many people who deserve it much more.”

Many people were honored by both the public and the regional police ranks, including a police team who investigated a series of armed robberies at pharmacies in the region.