It was a typical Monday morning. We had rushed to get Kadee to school, the kids to the babysitter and try to make it into work somewhat on time. I was chatting away with Charlie on the highway when an announcement came on the radio..."Two U.S. Marshals had been shot in downtown Las Vegas." All of a sudden a numbness came over me. We had seen one too many police officers killed this year, not again! I immediately called into work to see if they had heard anything. At the same time I was on the phone the news was making its way through the office. Unfortunately, nobody really knew what was going on yet. We got off the highway exit and headed to our office. I could see the helicopters circling in the air near the Federal Courthouse. This was not good. As we got on the street of our office everything was drowned out, from nowhere the sirens appeared. Charlie pulled over to the side of the road and patrol car after patrol car whipped by us with lights flashing and sirens blaring. I immediately started praying for the well being of the Marshal's and selfishly started thinking, please don't let it be anyone we know. What if one of our guys was at the Federal building? What if it was one of them? The details were coming in slowly and when it was all said and done we learned that a crazed man who had killed before thought it was his right to go and take other people's lives because heaven forbid his Social Security benefits had been cut!
In the end a court security officer was killed, a U.S. Marshal was shot and injured and the offender was shot and killed. The numbness of that day will remain for some time.
I enter that building on occasion for meetings, appearances and trials. I walk through the security and would have never thought that one day, their lives would ever be in jeopardy. God bless them for protecting us and putting their lives on the line. For most it is simply a retirement job, something easy to help them pass the days and stay involved in law enforcement. I guarantee you from here on out, every time I walk through those security monitors I will pay more attention to those men that sit their and put their lives on the line.
I enter that building on occasion for meetings, appearances and trials. I walk through the security and would have never thought that one day, their lives would ever be in jeopardy. God bless them for protecting us and putting their lives on the line. For most it is simply a retirement job, something easy to help them pass the days and stay involved in law enforcement. I guarantee you from here on out, every time I walk through those security monitors I will pay more attention to those men that sit their and put their lives on the line. 
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