Big Lake Officer Awarded DPS Purple Heart

AUSTIN, TX — A Texas Highway Patrol officer from Big Lake was awarded the Department of Public Safety Purple Heart recently after he was injured assisting during a crash last year.

On Nov. 7, 2024, Corporal Scott Keane was helping the North Reagan County Volunteer Fire Department extricate someone who was trapped in a vehicle after a crash. 

As Keane held the hydraulic lines of the jaws of life, enabling a firefighter to shear off the roof to rescue the individual, the front left side airbag unexpectedly deployed. 

The detonation caused the inflator tube to become a projectile, striking Keane in his right forearm. He was immediately treated at the scene for his incapacitating injury and then transported to a local hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair bone breaks and muscle tears.

In recognition of his “great personal sacrifice and professional performance of law enforcement duties, during which he sustained serious bodily injuries,”Keane was awarded the Purple Heart.

“Service and sacrifice are so often required in the field of law enforcement,” said DPS Colonel Freeman F. Martin said during the ceremony. “Perhaps no one embodies those than the people we recognize here today – as they have given so much in the service of this state, and I could not be prouder to be able to honor them with a small token of appreciation and thank them for their tremendous contributions.”