As I stood looking eye-to-eye with death and the gun the killer was holding on me, I turned my back expecting to be killed in the middle of the road. I asked God to show me a way out of this dark place, trying to save a young woman's life. As I started toward the sheriff's car, suddenly, I heard a loud gunshot. I felt death all around me. As I fell to the middle of the road, facedown, I thought, Oh, God, is this my day? Is this the way I die?

No one except a law enforcement officer can really understand the sacrifices that we make carrying the weight of the badge. A law enforcement officer leaves his family to serve the public and to prevent any more death threats to him and his family. It gets to be a lonely world, but we took an oath to protect and serve the people. Never let us forget that.

I give thanks to God for bringing me home all those years.