KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The deaths of Deputies Patrick Rohrer and Theresa King reinforces the danger involved in law enforcement.
41 Action News talked to a retired Jackson County Sherrif reserve deputy and says he’s tired of going to the funerals for the men and woman in blue.
On Sunday, Anthony Gafney walked to the makeshift memorial lining the sally port where the deputies died, “It's difficult when you walk up there, it makes you choke really bad.”
Gafney served 38 years as a reserve officer with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, “As an officer, you always feel a little bit worse about an officer's shooting. When I heard about this I felt really bad about it, I wanted to come over here and do something.”
Adding to the memorial, Gafney left a Jackson County Sheriff’s retirement hat on the fence, “I've had to give up several hats for Kansas City, Kansas Sheriff's department for the Wyandotte County Sherrif's Department and I told him down there let's start taking better care of ourselves here because I'm running out of hats”.
It’s tragic incidents like what happened to these two deputies that Gafney never personally experienced with his department but says this should never happen.
“We don't think of it as a life or death risking job, we don't think of it as we're going to go out, we have to be very careful we just know what we are and go out and do what we are supposed to do,” said Gafney.
Coming to memorials and funerals isn’t new for Gafney. He said he's been to two others in Wyandotte County and hopes the violence stops as he thinks about the families dealing with their pain of losing their loved ones.
“All I can say is that I'm sorry for their loss, that's not adequate but no words are adequate I'm afraid.”
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