Sheriff’s Det. Mark Tanner receives St. Bernard-Arabi Kiwanis Club Life-Saver Award for his work with a U.S. Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force

Taking part in the St. Bernard-Arabi Kiwanis Club’s presentation of its Life-Saver Award to Sheriff’s Det. Mark Tanner are, from left, Lt. Robert Broadhead, Col. John Doran, Chief Deputy Sheriff Richard Baumy, Kiwanis Life-Saver committee chairman Sam Catalanotto, Det. Tanner, his wife, Brittany; Kiwanis President Shirley Pechon, Det. Maj. Robert McNab and Det. Capt. Mark Jackson.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Det. Mark Tanner is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who fought in the Iraq War and has been with the Sheriff’s Office since 2008, spending four years in the Patrol Division.

Now Tanner has been selected to receive the St. Bernard-Arabi Kiwanis Club’s Life-Saver Award for his work as a sheriff’s detective assigned to the U.S. Marshal’s Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force in New Orleans. He has been there since 2012.

The Kiwanis Club gives the award four times a year, twice to a parish sheriff’s deputy and twice to a firefighter.

Tanner and his wife, Brittany, were honored in a ceremony that included superiors at the Sheriff’s Office, Kiwanis club President Shirley Pechon and Sam Catalanotto, chairman of the Life-Saver Committee.

In presenting the award, Catalanotto said that more than 10 years ago the club started it as way to recognize first-responders in the parish for the work they do to protect the public.

“They are the first people through a door’’ to rescue someone in an emergency,’’ he said. “They put their lives on the line’’ for St. Bernard.

Tanner, who has been involved in the search and apprehension of hundreds of fugitives from multiple agencies in this region including felons who have fled St. Bernard Parish, thanked the Kiwanis Club, saying he felt honored to receive the Life-Saver award.

“I thank the Sheriff’s Office for allowing me to be on the task force.’’

Tanner also deflected credit for the work done in capturing fugitives who either left St. Bernard when wanted or have been found living here after fleeing other jurisdictions.

“I’m a chess piece in the game’’ of apprehending fugitives, Tanner said, adding that many people are responsible, starting with patrol deputies who initially handle calls about crimes.

Sheriff James Pohlmann has said, “Det. Tanner and the Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force has performed an important service helping keep this parish safe: finding fugitives who committed serious crimes here and rooting out criminals hiding in St. Bernard from law enforcement elsewhere.’’

The Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force has dealt with multiple cases from St. Bernard since Tanner has been assigned there.

Some of the bigger ones involving St. Bernard which Tanner and the task force handled last year included: tracking down a murder fugitive from St. Bernard who fled to Memphis last Spring, arresting a man in Oakland, Ca., wanted in the parish for attempted murder and robbery last June, and finding a woman in Violet last summer wanted as an accessory in a 2006 double murder in Tulsa, Okla.

Also, in January of this year the task force traced a man to Lafourche Parish who was wanted in St. Bernard for felony aggravated battery for beating a woman he knew with a metal bar until she was unconscious.

James “Fatt’’ Madison, 31, of New Orleans, was arrested in Memphis for second-degree murder in the killing of a New Orleans man in Chalmette last March.

Widner DeGruy, 21, a New Orleans rapper who performs as “Flow,’’ was arrested in Oakland last June for attempted first-degree murder and two counts of robbery for an incident involving two men in Chalmette.

Jacqueline Octavia Smith, 36, was arrested where she was living in Violet last summer and returned to Tulsa, Okla., where she was wanted as an accessory in a 2006 double murder of two women there. She had allegedly helped a man flee from Oklahoma who was wanted in the killings.

On Jan. 23, Marcel McCormick, 42, who had been living with a woman in Chalmette, was found in Lafourche Parish by the Marshal’s Task Force after he fled the parish after allegedly beating the woman with a metal bar during an argument. Madison, DeGruy and McCormick were taken to St. Bernard Parish Prison.

Tanner said he has enjoyed the fast pace of the investigations he has been involved with as well as the importance of finding the fugitives involved. The task force deals with warrants in serious felonies primarily including murder, robbery, sex crimes, battery and drugs.

“It’s dealing with a true offender, someone who has done something harmful to others,’’ Tanner said of the fugitive task force.

It is worthwhile to have St. Bernard represented on the task force, said Col. John Doran, chief of operations for the Sheriff’s Office.

“They bring the full resources of the Marshals Service’’ to tracking a fugitive, Col. Doran said. “They are known for getting their man.’’

Others representing the Sheriff’s Office at the ceremony included Chief Deputy Sheriff Richard Baumy, Maj. Robert McNab, commander of the Criminal Investigation Bureau; Det. Capt. Mark Jackson and Lt. Robert Broadhead.