OPINION: FOR THE RECORD: Tragedies bookend Fourth of July holiday

Janie Slaven, The Sentinel Echo, London, Ky.
·3 min read

Jul. 8—The Fourth of July festivities of the past weekend were tempered by the bookends of shooting tragedies that remind us the precariousness of the times we're living in.

It began Thursday evening — and much too close to home — when three officers and a K-9 were killed when the man on which they were trying to serve a warrant opened fire in the small Floyd County town of Allen.

The officers could have very well been our neighbors and were very much a part of their own community.

Prestonsburg Police Captain Ralph Frasure had been with the department since 1983. Floyd County Deputy Sheriff William Petry was a 31-year veteran of law enforcement who served two years with FCSO after 15 years first with the Kentucky State Police then 14 with the Prestonsburg Police Department. PPD Officer Jacob Chaffins, who died Friday from the injuries he sustained, had served with the department since 2019. FCSO K-9 Drago was a German Shepherd that had specialized in drug detection for six years.

All died protecting the people of Floyd County, and we should honor their sacrifice as we pray for the recovery of the four others who were wounded.

It's a painful reminder just how dangerous the profession can be. No doubt the officers had served many other domestic-related warrants in the past. They took care to stay safe, with four deputies initially responding to the Allen, Kentucky, residence and calling for backup once they had been fired upon.

But as Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams called it during a press conference on Sunday, the officers were "walking into a tactical ambush" with the home's location giving the shooter a "nearly unreachable position" before he finally surrendered some three hours after the incident began.

"Upon surrendering, the reality and magnitude of what just occurred begin to sink in," Judge Williams said, "and our community was going to be forever changed."

In contrasting but increasingly familiar circumstances, the people attending Monday's Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, probably had no idea that they were in a danger zone.

Authorities say the gunman chose a spot on the parade route where many residents had staked out prime viewing points early in the day. At press time, seven people had died while more than three dozen had been wounded.

I have no answers for how these communities — and particularly the families of the victims — can begin to heal. My heart goes out to all of them and I pray for the safety of all of us as we go about our daily lives thanks to the efforts of our forefathers in making the United States a free country. I offer my gratitude to the veterans and current soldiers striving to keep it that way, as well as to the first responders left to "hold the line" in honor of the fallen, in the words of Prestonsburg Chief of Police Randy Woods, to keep our communities safe.