MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) — An overflow crowd packed into the Davison County Public Safety Center on Monday to honor the heroic actions of four law enforcement officers and two others that saved the lives of two young children earlier this year.
On April 29, 2026, a family from Pierre was driving on Interstate 90 when their vehicle crashed, rolling violently, careening off a concrete support of the Rowley Street overpass, and catching fire before coming to rest on its side in the median. Two adults died in the accident, but their young children were still alive when first responders got to the scene. Davison County Sheriff’s Deputies Kyle Bice and Kohl Oster immediately began handing out fire extinguishers to a Mitchell police officer and another man who had stopped to help.
Flames were leaping from under the hood as much as 15 feet into the air. The official police report for the incident says Bice and Oster each used up a full fire extinguisher. Officer Shanden Reiners went through three extinguishers, and Anthony Reinmetz emptied another two. The quick use of the extinguishers kept the fire from escaping the engine compartment to the cabin.
Deputy Bice, Officer Garrett Douglas and JR Munson, the other bystander, began working to free the kids. Bice lifted Douglas on top, where he was able to rip open the rear door. With Munson keeping the door open, Douglas took a knife and cut through the seat belt. Douglas then passed down one-year-old Hadley Willis, still strapped into a car seat, to safety.
Three-year-old Hudson was harder to get out. Douglas had to go inside the cabin with the vehicle on fire for over five minutes. While working in the back seat, Douglas patiently worked to free Hudson from a space that was made even more cramped by the collapsed roof of the truck. Douglas kept Hudson calm, was able to get him out of his car seat, and handed him to Deputy Bice, who got Hudson to an ambulance that had just arrived.
Douglas stayed inside to check on the condition of the parents. Unfortunately, Shane and Melynda Willis were already dead. He would finally reemerge unharmed.
Douglas was awarded the highest possible award, the Medal of Honor, due to the risk he took of going into the vehicle in a dangerous situation. Officer Reiners was given the Medal of Merit, while Deputies Bice and Oster got Medals of Valor. Sheriff Steve Harr tells Mitchell Now that the two medals are essentially equivalent to each other, even if the names differ due to which department they’re in.
Reimnitz and Munson were each handed a Civilian Service Award for their actions. While the total accolades stopped at six, Chief Dean Knippling and other presenters made sure to praise heroes from across the community. They took time to thank the nurses at Avera Queen of Peace who stayed by Hadley and Hudson’s side through the night until their grandparents could make it to Mitchell to take them back to family.
Then there were the counselors and support staff who helped those at the scene deal with the trauma they saw and get back to their patrols. Both those honored and those acknowledged received lengthy rounds of applause from the crowded courthouse on Monday.
