Gulfport officer honored for work finding kidnapped retired officer

On January 26, Gulfport Police Officer John Schwartz found a man who’d gone missing — a retired sheriff’s deputy from Vicksburg who had been abducted, bound and apparently left for dead in an old shipping container on Grace Temple Baptist Church property on Old Highway 49.

He was honored Wednesday by being named the Kiwanis Club’s Officer of the Quarter at a lunch at the Great Southern Club.

“When I went to search that area I saw tire tracks in the grass,” Schwartz said. “I walk up towards the tire tracks and i see a four-wheeler and that was possibly our suspect’s four-wheeler. So I call it out on the radio have my back up come. We started making our way to this abandoned structure, go up and knock on it, hear somebody calling for help inside.”

The victim, Mike Ouzts, had two gunshot wounds and a broken leg. He had been tortured and was severely dehydrated. Schwartz cut his binding and performed emergency medical care.

As the case unfolded, eight suspects were identified and arrested in Louisiana, charged in the abduction as well as another burglary and kidnapping in Gulfport.

Gulfport Chief Adam Cooper said he could not be prouder of his officer.

“I couldn’t be prouder to know that this officer went and helped what turns out to be another retired police officer who had been left for dead,” Cooper said.

Schwartz is fourth generation law enforcement his family — following the footsteps of his grandfather and father, Toby Schwartz, who is Chief of Police in Bay St. Louis.

“I’m a super proud father today for my son John Schwartz,” Toby Schwartz said. “He really did a great job finding this abducted victim and saving their life. He’s always strived to be in law enforcement. He’s excelling in it obviously and has a good nose for crime and doing the right thing.”

John Schwartz said it’s been fulfilling.

“All law enforcement officers have a “why” one of my whys on why I became a police officer was to change someone’s life. Without me being able to find him that day he would have must definitely would had died. I did change a life that day.”