Updated Tuesday July 14 2026 at 11:24 a.m.
A group of Bensalem Police officers received awards for their heroic acts and contributions to implementing modern day forensic analysis in law enforcement efforts in Chester County at Monday night’s Council meeting.
Director of Public Safety William McVey served as master of ceremonies highlighting the life sustaining acts by Bensalem Police Officers.
Tonight is about our officers on the street doing the job they do so remarkable well, McVey said,
“that we’re so proud off. ”
Corporal Noah Pultro was awarded Bensalem PD’s Life Saving Award for a call he responded to on January 8th at 1446 Gibson Rd, for a report of a male who was bleeding from his arm, and losing consciousness. The victim was suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper left arm. Portola applied pressure to the wound to control bleeding until first responders arrived.
Credit: Joshua Thompson, Lower Bucks Source contributor
Officers Clifford Snyder and Richard Adams also were commemorated with each receiving a Life Saving Award.
Mcvey said they rescued a 73 year-old in an disabled vehicle located in the Byberry and Galloway Road area on March 25. The woman identified as Susan Rose, was found unconscious in her vehicle. Snyder and Adams broke the window of the vehicle to pull Rose out, and performed CPR until she regained a pulse.
Rose attended the ceremony and thanked Snyder for saving her that day.
Bensalem Twp Police Life Saving Award Honoree Cliff Snyder Credit: Joshua Thompson, Lower Bucks Source Contributor
Corporal Steve Ambs, Officer Michael Sheehy , Officer Christopher Pennington, and Officer Brett Beaumont earned life saving recognition: for responding to a cardiac arrest call on May 2nd, on Windward Lane. All four officers took turn performing CPR on 57 year old Sean Clement who at the time was unconscious. This went on until Bensalem EMS arrived to take over from there. It’s thanks to their efforts that Clement was able to make a full recovery, Mcvey said.
Credit: YouTube screenshot
“Our police officers do a tremendous job serving this community with integrity and distinction.” McVey said.
“It’s not every day you get called upon to save a life.”
After the presentation by McVey, Chester County Chief of Detectives David Sassa awarded Sgt Glenn Vandegrift for his contributions to Chester. Vandegrift worked with Sassa and police in Chester County to set up an DNA database and lab for forensic investigations and data collection
“His intuition and using forensic DNA to solve these crimes is impressive.” Sassa stated. I watched it from two counties over. Bensalem was eliminating people, they were linking crime scenes from small to big crime scenes in Bensalem and out.”
Vandegrift was a big part of helping Chester County PD set up their own forensic lab in both funding, strategic planning, and even helped train over 125 police officers, Sassa said.
“I’m proud to say that in the three years since we started this intuitive, we’ve built our database up to over 3000, thousand samples, and over 12 hundred linked cases in Chester, Bucks, and Philadelphia. Sargent Vandergriff deserves a lot of credit for what he did in Chester County,” Sassa said before awarding Vandergriff with a plaque of recognition.
Sgt Glenn Vandegrift was honored for helping Chester County set up a DNA lab and train more than 125 police officers in police forensics. Credit: Joshua Thompson, Lower Bucks Source contributor.
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