Wasco County Sheriff Lane Magill said he was in a daze this morning, trying to process what happened in Dallas, where five police were killed and seven wounded by sniper fire at a protest Thursday night against recent killings by police.
“It’s tragic that people would target law enforcement, who are sworn to protect and serve the citizens,” he said. “I just don’t get it. I just don’t understand it in my mind; it’s too raw, it’s too new.”
At The Dalles Police Department, Interim Chief Steve Baska said bluntly, “It’s horrendous, it’s the act of a bunch of cowards and it’s my hope that justice will come down on them very hard and swift.”
He added, “My heart goes out to the families and the Dallas Police Department, who have lost part of their family.”
Baska said the snipers were well armed and at least one had a ballistic vest on. One officer shot at a suspect, but the suspect was wearing body armor and just turned around and returned fire, killing the officer.
Asked if he felt putting on his uniform put him at risk, Baska said, “Yeah, but we’ve always been at risk. There’s always been people that hate cops, so we can’t let that dictate our actions. We’ve always been vigilant and aware of our surroundings, but you can’t live in hiding.”
Both Baska and Magill agreed that most people here are pro-police.
“I feel pretty safe here,” Baska said. “We’re not having these kind of issues that these big cities are.”
He feels that if someone was coming up behind him with bad intent, another citizen would alert him to the danger.
Magill encouraged people to not form opinions until the facts of the case emerge. “We don’t know enough information about it yet. It appears to be a fairly orchestrated event.”
As for his own reaction, he said that while he feels communities here are safe, “Something like this, for me personally, makes me much more aware of my surroundings, that’s for sure.”
And that’s not to say deputies are typically complacent, he said. “We’re never complacent in this business, and if we become complacent we shouldn’t be in the business. And that means in safe communities. Anything can happen.”
And while Magill said their awareness is higher, “we’re not on edge, I can tell you that. We’re still going to do our jobs to the best of our abilities.”
It was being discussed in the patrol room at the sheriff’s office this morning, Magill said. “I think we’re all still in shock. There’s a lot of conversation about why it happened and how it happened.”
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