RALEIGH, N.C. — In his 50 years in law enforcement, Eddie Caldwell says grieving the loss of a brother in blue never gets easier.

​"There is a song that says something about a little piece of me died today. And I think that's how all of us in law enforcement feel when we lose a fellow officer. You never forget it. You never quit thinking about it," said Caldwell, executive vice president and general counsel of the N.C. Sheriff's Association.

While loved ones and family members can take time to process the tragedy, Caldwell says law enforcement gets right back to work. That was the case in Raleigh's recent mass shooting that left five dead, including Raleigh Police Officer Gabriel Torres.

"It didn't stop when the suspect was captured. There's crime scenes over a several mile area, so officers whose colleagues had just been murdered and another one had been shot and could have easily been murdered and any one of them could have been easily been killed in that situation. But yet they couldn't go home, they couldn't go home and talk to their spouse," he said.

Torres' death comes just a few months after Wake County Sheriff's Deputy Ned Byrd was shot and killed while on patrol with his K9. Two men are awaiting trial, charged with his murder.

"It's important that we in law enforcement and the general public acknowledge these situations for what they are, and what they are is a cold-blooded murder. Too often we use the term line of duty death and as a society we have to speak out against that," Caldwell said.

Caldwell says we must respect the badge and the responsibility that comes with it.

"We all ought to say a little prayer and say a thank you to every officer that is working. Let them know how much we appreciate them, because without them, none of us could survive," he said.