Wichita Falls Police are mourning the five officers killed in Dallas Thursday night.
“It’s certainly a sad day for law enforcement, sad day for the community in Dallas and certainly our nation,” Chief Manuel Borrego said.
Public Information Officer Jeff Hughes said he found out about the deadly attack while flipping through channels on his TV last night.
“My first thought was to pray for all of those involved, whether it be law enforcement or citizens. It was just pandemonium going on down there, so we really didn’t know exactly what was going on,” Officer Hughes said.
Borrego said during a press conference Friday morning that he sent a text message to his officers that morning reminding them of why they took that oath, especially in trying times like these.
“There are those criminal elements, but they’re the ones that we promised our citizens to protect them against. If they’ll remember that then they’ll remember why they put their badge on and why we do this job and will continue to do that job each day and each night,” Borrego said.
Officer Chad Nelson was asleep before the news hit airwaves in Texoma, but his wife woke up at 2am. and broke the story to him when his alarm went off at 5am.
“I was extremely tired and didn’t want to get out of bed until I heard that. Hearing that lit a fire within me. I just wanted to get up, get ready for work and go,” Nelson said.
Hughes said their job as officers is to protect and serve. Their daily goal is to make it home at the end of the day.
“Those officers, even when they were presented the severity of that situation last night, still ran toward that gunfire, ran toward that sniper because they were more concerned last night with letting all of those citizens go home,” Hughes said.
All officers I spoke with said they will do whatever it takes to protect the city if something like this were to happen in Wichita Falls.
“We want to keep every citizen in our community safe and if that means we run to danger like those officers did last night then that’s what we’re going to do for our community,” Hughes said.
Community members and local businesses are showing support for law enforcement across Texoma. Some restaurants, like Pioneer of Texas, are offering free meals for law enforcement all weekend.
– Newschannel 6
