Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning awarded four sheriff’s deputies the Life Saving Award for their efforts to rescue the 6-year-old De Soto boy confined to his attic in August.

Sergeants Brent Moore and Mark Rokusek and Deputies Evan Comerio and John Klingele rescued the son of Rachel Perez from her attic on Aug. 17, where he had been confined for an unknown length of time.

According to the incident report, upon initial inquiry, Perez told the deputies her son was not in the home. After Perez was taken into custody for a traffic warrant, the deputies returned to the home at the request of a family member to search for the boy. The deputies reported noticing a smell coming from the outside of the home, the others boosted Klingele through a window into the attic, where the boy was found.

Recipients of the Life Saving Award are anonymously nominated to the department’s recognition committee, which then selects recipients based on how they were able to “distinguish themselves as worthy of formal recognition,” according to Master Deputy Tom Erickson.

Rokusek has been with the department for 22 years, Moore for 13, Klingele for eight and Comerio for seven.