Kentucky lifesaver award for Trim-born police officer

US police officer Emily Reilly Lettie, a native of Trim, has been presented with a life-saving award for her part in rescuing a man from a fire last November. Officer Reilly Lettie grew up in Avondale in Trim and moved to the United States in 2003, where she joined the police force in Detroit. Now based in Louisville, Kentucky, this is the fourth award she has received since joining the force. This latest award was presented on 18th May in recognition of her part in the dramatic rescue last November. "I responded to a call on a house fire. When I pulled up, the fire department had just gone inside, and I helped them carry an unconscious man out from inside the building. "I started CPR on the man while the fire department went back in to look for more victims. I continued doing CPR until he started breathing again. "Around that time the ambulance arrived and took over," she recalled. "The strange part about that incident is that I don't even work in that part of town, I was on my way to our office when I heard the call come out," she added. In 2007, Officer Reilly Lettie's bravery was recognised when she received another award for catching a rapist after a chase on foot. On that occasion, a call came in about a woman standing naked on the street screaming. "We responded to the call and there was a woman naked and screaming and she looked beaten up. She pointed at the house saying 'He's in there, he's in the house'. "Then a guy jumped out the window and ran down the street," she said. The young police officer ran after him and caught him in the back garden of a house, using a Taser to detain him. It turned out that the man had broken into the home of the 67-year-old woman and held her captive, beat her and raped her for three hours before she managed to escape. The 24-year-old attacker was later sentenced to 25 years in prison. The same year, Officer Reilly Lettie was also awarded a Governer's Award for impaired driving enforcement and, in 2009, she was awarded Officer of the Year for her division when still in patrol. The Trim-born police officer is a daughter of Dermot and Mary Anne Reilly and attended St Mary's Primary School and Scoil Mhuire in Trim. After completing her Leaving Certificate in 1998, she attended Griffith College, Dublin, and worked in credit management before deciding to move to the States in 2003. Her mother is originally from Detroit and she decided to move to Michigan. Officer Reilly Lettie explained that she hadn't thought about being a police officer until about six months before moving to the States. She was working in Dublin when she saw an advertisement that the Detroit Police Department was recruiting."I saw the advertisement and thought it mightn't be a bad job. I wanted to do something different and have some stories to tell," she said. She was hired by Detroit Police Department in 2004 and recruited by Louiseville Metro Police Department in 2005. After working in patrol for several years, she was accepted into the traffic unit where she specialises in selective enforcement and fatal accident investigation. Officer Reilly Lettie lives outside of Louisville with her husband, Greg, a police sergeant.