4 DEA AGENTS HONORED FOR VALOR

CENTURY CITY - When DEA Agent John Prangenberg saw fellow agent Shane
Murray pinned beneath the wheels of a drug dealer's car and the driver
ready to hit the gas, he opened fire--killing the suspect and probably
saving Murray's life.

Two other agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also
fired before the suspect could drive over Murray's chest as he lay on
the ground.

For their efforts, Prangenberg, Murray and colleagues Sean Fromson and
Ralph Partridge received the Medal of Valor Thursday from the Los
Angeles Chapter of the Federal Bar Assn.

"You don't really think about it," Prangenberg said after the awards
ceremony, held at the Century Plaza Hotel. "You just react."

At least 500 people--including members of the federal bar, U.S. Atty.
Alejandro N. Mayorkas and other dignitaries--attended the ceremony.
Actor Robert Stack, who played Treasury Agent Eliot Ness in the TV
series "The Untouchables," was master of ceremonies.

The incident for which the four agents were recognized happened July
1, 1999, in Hawthorne. Eleven other federal agents working out of
Southern California received Distinguished Achievement Awards.