CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Clearwater officer Andrew Billups won officer of the year Saturday evening at the 11th annual gala for the Tampa Bay Area Chiefs of Police Foundation.
Billups came to the rescue of a nonverbal 8-year-old girl with autism when the girl was stranded on jagged rocks at Clearwater Beach.
Kathy Petrucelli, the girl’s grandmother, said her granddaughter, Lavina, left their hotel and went down to the beach unsupervised. She said that at the time, Lavina couldn’t swim, it was high tide, and she was in danger of being swept into the gulf…