According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, nearly 2,000 law enforcement professionals have been killed in the line of duty in Texas alone.
It’s something every law enforcement professional said its always painful to hear.
Within the past month in Central Texas DPS has lost two of their troopers in the line of duty.
Sgt. D.L. Wilson said it’s a sacrifice that every officer makes when they walk in to work each day.
“It's been a tough month for the Highway Patrol in Central Texas, It hits the families hard. I've seen it all and none of them get any easier, of course, the matter of fact they probably even get worse,” Wilson said.
Melissa Beseda is a spouse of a Waco police officer she said although every spouse prepares for it, learning a loved one has died while protecting their community is something no one wants to hear.
“Your heart goes out to the spouses especially being a spouse, wondering how are they handling themselves, what are they feeling, how are the kids,” Beseda said.
Another issue that often goes unmentioned is how other officers deal emotionally with processing the bad news.
“How are the other officers that had to witness it? The ones that had to pull up to the crime scene and work it, because you still have to go about your normal job and work the crime scene like any other,” Beseda said.
Sgt. Wilson said one way he deals with the emotional trauma is by talking openly about it and making sure not to keep anything bottled inside.
“You have to kiss your loved one goodbye every morning or a night when you go to work because you might not see them that afternoon. These men and women they have to go back to work, they’re going to be going up and down the same highway doing the job like their supposed to because we're professionals, but it's always in the back of their minds,” Wilson said.
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