San Angelo DPS Sergeant, Bronte Trooper Honored for Saving Heart Attack Victim

SAN ANGELO, TX — A San Angelo sergeant and a Bronte trooper received Texas Department of Public Safety Lifesaving Awards on Thursday for reviving a man who collapsed with a heart attack. 

Sgt. Rito Renteria of San Angelo and Trooper Mary Carrillo of Bronte were recognized during the Public Safety Commission meeting at DPS headquarters. On April 30, a man approached Carrillo’s patrol unit seeking help, then became unresponsive and stopped breathing. Carrillo began CPR while Renteria, then a Highway Patrol corporal, retrieved an automated external defibrillator. 

The two alternated CPR and delivered two shocks that temporarily restored the man’s breathing before emergency medical services arrived, DPS said. Commission Chairman Steven P. Mach and commissioners Nelda Luce Blair, Dan Hord, Larry Long and Steven H. Stodghill joined DPS Col. Freeman F. Martin in presenting two Purple Hearts, multiple Lifesaving Awards, a Director’s Citation, Director’s Awards and a Unit Citation. 

“Every day, DPS personnel and our partners are called upon to make difficult decisions in moments when lives are on the line,” Martin said. “The men and women we recognize today demonstrated extraordinary courage, compassion and dedication to duty, often placing the safety and well-being of others ahead of their own.”

Also honored were Special Agent Bradley Bush of Garland and Trooper Dakota Hughes of Jacksonville, who received Purple Hearts for serious injuries suffered on duty. Bush was struck head-on in December 2021 by a wrong-way pickup driven by an intoxicated motorist while working Operation Lone Star. Hughes was shot Feb. 14 while helping Wood County deputies serve a felony warrant. 

Both later returned to duty, DPS said. Retired Sgt. Investigator Jerry Powell received the Director’s Citation for a 1977 Harris County undercover heroin buy that ended in a shooting after two armed suspects entered the vehicle. Citizen Jerad Spencer received a Director’s Award for using a belt as a tourniquet after a motorcycle crash Feb. 26. 

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden Toby Davis received a Director’s Award, and Trooper Jeffrey Myers of Eastland received a Lifesaving Award, for stopping severe bleeding after a March 22 interstate crash. 

Lifesaving Awards also went to Troopers Luke Arreguin of Victoria, Javontae Harrington of Longview, Dy Norng of Gainesville and Clinton Ransom of Waxahachie; Cpl. Corey VanDerWilt of Mineola; Cpl. Larry Harrison of San Marcos; and Tactical Flight Officer Dustin Gardner of Houston, who was recognized for flood-rescue work in Kerr County in July 2025. 

The Criminal Investigations Division received a Unit Citation for disrupting a planned mass-casualty attack targeting Canyon’s July 4, 2025, celebration, an event expected to draw 35,000 to 40,000 people.

To read more about this event and Unit Citation, click HERE.