By Nate Morabito, WJHL News (Bristol, Tennessee)
The murder of one officer and the apparent suicide of a Tri-Cities detective sheds some light on the stresses of law enforcement, easily one of the most unpredictable career fields.
Just hours after Bristol, Tennessee, officer Mark Vance was gunned down late Saturday night, Washington County, Virginia, authorities found the body of 28 year-old detective Bradley Keith Davis.
A job in law enforcement can often be just as dangerous emotionally as it is physically.
Sergeant Gordon Light knows how tough it is working in law enforcement.
“It could be any of us,” Light said referring to the death of Mark Vance.
He joins other officers today, wearing mourning bands over their badges.
This weekend’s killing is just one example of the pressures that come with working in this field, the obvious risk, responsibility, and sacrifice these men and women have to live, work, and sometimes even die with.
“You can talk about it all that you want to, but you’re never prepared for it if and when it does happen,” Light added.
Officers often risk their lives to protect us, but who’s protecting them from the many mental stresses of the job.
It’s people like John Goah.
“The job itself is very, very stressful,” Goah said.
He should know. He’s a chaplain for the Johnson City Police Department.
That means whenever an officer feels like he or she can’t take it anymore, Chaplain Goah is the man they can turn to for guidance.
In this field, suicide is often a real consequence, and because most of us have never been in life or death situations where we’ve had to make split-second decisions that can sometimes leave a person dead, it’s something that can weigh heavily on an officer’s mind forever.
It all comes back to the uncertainty of every situation.
“You never know what to expect when you get there, you go in blind,” Light said.
Blind, the same way Mark Vance entered the home Saturday night.
The same way every other officer goes to work every day.