Chief Jeff Bunn of the Meskwaki Tribal Police Dept. presented Officer Kyle Howe with an accommodation award for his efforts in responding and administering first-aid, which saved the life of a stabbing victim on November 5th. Photo by Vanessa Roudabush.

During the Toledo City Council’s Monday meeting on Dec. 12, Chief Jeff Bunn of the Meskwaki Nation Police presented Officer Kyle Howe of the Toledo Police Department with accommodation for his efforts in saving the life of an individual.

Chief Bunn began his speech with memories of working alongside Kyle when he was a part of the Toledo Police department many years ago.

“Kyle is unique in the aspect that he doesn’t have to look for crime. Crime typically follows Kyle wherever he is. I used to call him a, pardon my french, s*** magnet all the time,” Bunn said.

On the evening of Nov. 5, officers were dispatched to an active domestic incident with a stabbing. The victim was stabbed 11 times and was in critical condition upon arrival. Officer Howe administered life-saving first aid to the individual while Meskwaki Tribal Police secured the scene and apprehended the suspect.

Chief Bunn recounted the valiant efforts of Officer Howe.

“If it wasn’t for my officers that responded and Kyle taking the initiative for him to respond with the guys, who knows what would have happened there,” Bunn said.

The Chief went on to elaborate further on what made Howe’s actions so heroic.

“Kyle, all of your actions showed true professionalism in a very critical incident. It is these kinds of actions that represent all law enforcement in a positive light. We’d like to send you our heartfelt thank you for your decision to respond to this incident immediately, and we want to congratulate you on a letter of accommodation from our agency to yours,” said Chief Bunn.

Chief Bunn told the Council of his hope for future agency collaboration.

“The relationship between the Tama, Toledo, and Meskwaki agencies has improved immensely over the past few months. Thank you, guys, for that, and we’re going to keep working on it,” he said. “Hopefully, someday we can get to a point where we’re all working on a mutual aid agreement or something of that nature where we’re all responding together and helping everyone.”