Chicago cop has been honored on Wednesday for bravery in the face of a gunbattle took aim at Mayor Rahm Emanuel's controversial claim that Chicago police had gone "fetal."

Officer Antonio Herrera and his three colleagues were honored for heroism at the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation's annual "Valor Lunch". He addressed a crowd of police and police supporters that "everyone in the city who thinks that we've gone fetal, or that the police have gone fetal, don't believe it for a second."

Motioning to Officers Alejandro Lagunas, Arturo Bracho and Michael Cantore , who suffered gunshot wounds in the March 14 gunfight on the West Side before Herrera and Lagunas were able to kill their attacker, 29 years old career offender Lamar Harris. Herrera added, "Like my fellow officers here before me, there are many officers in every sector in every district working just as hard as we did."

The comments appeared to be a reference to Emanuel's comments in October 2015, reported in The Washington Post, "We have allowed our Police Department to get fetal, and it is having a direct consequence. They have pulled back from the ability to interdict … they don't want to be a news story themselves, they don't want their career ended early, and it's having an impact."

Emanuel told the Tribune that his words reflected what beat officers were telling him, and that officers needed encouragement from the public to be proactive.

When asked for comment on Wednesday, Emanuel's communications director, Adam Collins, said that the mayor knows the work officers do is difficult.

Collins said in an email, "The mayor believes our officers do incredibly difficult work and incredibly dangerous work, and officer Herrera is a great example of the dedication our officers have. That's why he has repeatedly called on other governmental leaders and residents to stand up and support those officers they see doing good work in our neighborhoods."

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By Prakriti neogi