WHEN DUTY CALLS; LOCAL DEPUTIES ARE DECORATED FOR SAVING LIVES.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Eight deputies from the Antelope Valley were recognized as heroes Friday for saving the lives of two women, a jail kitchen worker and two children, and for entering a burning apartment.

Receiving the department's highest honor were Palmdale deputies Robert Farkas, Douglas Lloyd and Steven Brown, who received Medals of Valor for saving a woman who had been taken hostage by her gun-wielding estranged husband.

``It shows that the department recognizes something heroic that they've done,'' Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Elsa Avila said after Sheriff Lee Baca presented the medals during a ceremony at the Wilshire Grand Hotel and Centre in Los Angeles.

Lancaster deputies Jonathan Melville and Tommy Carter and Acton resident Deputy Erick Doepking were awarded Gold Meritorious Conduct Medals, and Palmdale deputies Anthony Gunn and John Ebert received Silver Meritorious Conduct Medals for other actions.

The eight local deputies were among 22 deputies receiving awards at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's annual banquet.

Farkas, Lloyd and Brown were recognized for their actions April 25, 1998, when they engaged in a shootout with an ex-convict who had kidnapped his estranged wife from the Agua Dulce home where she had been staying.

When Mark Kuklok, 31, returned with the woman to his Acton home, he found deputies waiting for him. In a four-wheel drive, he led them on a short pursuit along dirt roads before stopping on a hillside, authorities said.

Emerging from the truck, Kuklok fired at the deputies, who fired back and hit Kuklok at least once. He fled and hid in some bushes, authorities said.

The officers rescued the woman from the floor of the truck, then sent in a police dog to locate Kuklok. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

Farkas was hit by a bullet during the shootout, but his bulletproof vest saved him.

Carter, a Quartz Hill resident, was commended for saving a woman from a knife-wielding man on March 8, 1997.

Called to a room at the EZ 8 Motel in Lancaster, Carter heard a woman screaming for help. Unable to get in the door, he broke a window and saw a man stabbing a woman with a hunting knife, authorities said. Carter fired one shot, which killed the man.

Melville, a Canyon Country resident who now works in the Lancaster sheriff's station, was working in a Los Angeles County jail June 29, 1996 when he and two others deputies rescued a kitchen worker who was taken hostage at knifepoint by an inmate who was demanding his release.

As the inmate held a 12-inch knife to the woman's throat, the deputies were able to talk him into putting down his knife and freeing her unharmed, authorities said.

Doepking received the Gold Meritorious Conduct Medal for entering a burning apartment April 5, 1998, to search for the woman who lived there.

When he arrived at the fire, neighbors said a woman lived there alone. Doepking entered to look for her but was forced out by the heat and smoke. Wrapping a wet towel around his face, he went back in, then returned a third time and made it to the woman's bedroom. He threw a planter through the window and searched the room, which turned out to be empty.

Gunn, a Palmdale resident, and Ebert, a Thousand Oaks resident, received Silver Meritorious Conduct Medals for rescuing two small children March 22, 1997 from a distraught man with a shotgun.

After deputies arrived at the front yard of a home in Desert View Highlands, they were able to convince the man to release his girlfriend's children, a 5-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy.

But when the two came out the front door, they became too terrified to move. As others covered them, Gunn and Ebert ran to the house, grabbed the children and carried them to safety, authorities said.

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PHOTO (Color) Six of eight deputies honored are, from left, Douglas Lloyd, Robert Farkas, Steven Brown, Erick Doepking, Anthony Gunn and Jonathan Melville.

John Lazar/Daily News