FENTON, Mo. — John Colter did what any father would likely do.
In January 2020, the 66-year-old pharmacist from Fenton heard screaming and gunshots come from inside his daughter’s home. He ran inside to help and saw his daughter’s estranged husband and his daughter, who had been shot in the leg and injured.
Colter confronted the man. As they fought over the gun, Colter called out to his daughter to leave the house and get help. She was able to run to a neighbor’s home, got treatment for her injury and survived.
Inside her home, the attack took an even more violent turn. Police said the estranged husband shot and killed Colter, and then ran away from the scene.
His final actions saved his daughter’s life. Now, he’s being recognized with the highest heroism honor an American civilian can receive.
The Carnegie Hero Fund announced Wednesday John D. Colter is one of 18 new recipients of the Carnegie Medal.
“The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others,” the organization wrote in a news release Wednesday.
Colter is one of seven awardees who will be posthumously honored.
Other recipients of the 2021 award include five men who drowned while trying to save others, and a man who died trying to save a young woman who suffocated inside a tanker truck she was cleaning.
There have been 10,256 Carnegie Medals awarded since the fund began in 1904. Besides a medal, a financial grant is given to each awardee or their survivors.
