Larche, Bouthner receive awards at ceremony

by Joseph M. Giordano

    Two officers from the North Point Precinct were lauded in a Baltimore County Police Department awards ceremony last week, according to a news release from the department.
    At the ceremony, held at Oregon Ridge Park on Oct. 27, Ofc. Justin Larche was awarded a Commendation for Valor and Ofc. Kenneth Bouthner was given an Emergency Services Award, the release said.
    Larche was lauded for disarming a man during a domestic dispute, according to Bill Toohey, a spokesman for the department, and Bouthner for helping another officer aid a man who tried to commit suicide.    
    On July 15, 2008, at 5:17 p.m., Larche was called to a house in the 7100 block of Eastern Avenue by a woman who needed assistance moving her things from the home, according to the original police report.
    The woman told officers she needed to get some things from the house, where her estranged husband, 30-year-old Bryan Gatton, was living, the report said.
   

After talking to her husband’s girlfriend, Larche and the woman reportedly went upstairs to retrieve her belongings. While taking out some boxes, the woman reportedly bum-ped the bedroom door open and noticed Gatton loading a silver handgun.
    She screamed, and her father, who had come in to help, rushed into the room to try to disarm Gatton, the report said.
    Gatton managed to overtake the man and pointed the gun at Larche, who had pulled his service revolver, according to police.
    At first, Gatton refused to put down his gun, but just as Larche began to pull his weapon’s trigger, Gatton relented and dropped his pistol, the report said.
    Gatton was arrested by Larche and charged with three counts of first-degree assault, three counts of second-degree assault, use of a handgun to commit a felony and reckless endangerment.
    He was released from the Baltimore County Detention Center and is awaiting trial in January.
    On Jan. 22, 2008,  Bouthner and Ofc. Jeremy Gryctz, of the White Marsh Precinct,  responded to a call for a 35-year-old man sitting on an embankment off I-695 with a rope tied around his neck and the other end tied to a tree branch, the original police report said.
    When the man saw the officers, he reportedly pushed himself off the embankment to hang himself from the tree.     
    Bouthner jumped down the embankment as Gryctz climbed into the tree and cut the rope, the report said.
    The officers, who both received the Emergency Service Award, kept the man alive until paramedics arrived, the report said.