Law enforcement agencies across the country are working with heavy hearts after Thursday night's ambush-style attacks on police officers in Dallas. Many in the Hudson Valley are offering their condolences to the loved ones of the five officers killed. Several more were injured.
“I was shocked. It was almost surreal," said Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff. "I’m still having a hard time grasping what happened.”
Schiff says members of his department have always been told to be alert when out on patrol and will continue to do so.
“We try to support our people, and I feel there is a great support here," Schiff said
“This is the deadliest day, yesterday, for police officers since 9/11," said New York State Troopers PBA President Thomas Mungeer. "And again, we haven’t seen this level of violence against police officers since the early 1970s.”
Mungeer says his members have always been vigilant, and now even more so following Thursday night's shooting.
"For someone to take vigilante justice into their own hands and be judge, jury, and executioner all in one is not what our system is built on,” Mungeer said.
Local law enforcement officers say people need to be patient and let investigations go forward. And not just into the Dallas attacks, but also the police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.
“You have to let, again, the justice system work itself out, [and] see what the results are on those investigations,” Mungeer said.
“I think all we can do is pray, think about the families, think about the wounded and fallen members,” Schiff said.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office says it will hold a vigil on Tuesday for the officers who were shot in Dallas. Sheriff Carl DuBois and Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler released a joint statement on the shootings.
DuBois said, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the members of the Dallas Police Department, their families, and the men and women of the law enforcement community who selflessly place themselves in harm’s way every day.”
Hoovler, meanwhile, said, "I urge all of our citizens to support our law enforcement officers as they perform very difficult jobs, so that rather than bloodshed, we can have the meaningful dialogue necessary to ensure that all of us are kept safe."