Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

Monday morning’s Star Tribune headline screamed at readers:

“Horrific Loss

Gunman kills two Burnsville Cops, paramedic”

A third officer was hurt and the shooter was dead after the early morning standoff.

Once again we are forced to realize that our police officers face greater and greater danger in this world.  It hasn’t even been a year since our own community was stunned as we learned that three local law enforcement officers were involved in a shooting during an attempted arrest for domestic assault.

One officer, Deputy Josh Owen, 44, was killed as a result of the gunfire exchanged during a domestic call in Cyrus.

Two other local officers were injured and the suspect died at the scene in that response to a domestic dispute.

On Monday, we realized that again, police officers and firefighters (paramedics and first responders) put their lives on the line to protect the public.

“They come to work every day,” said Burnsville Police Chief Tanya Schwartz as she described two police officers and a paramedic fatally shot early Sunay Morning.  “They know they may have to give up their life for their partners, for someone else.”

Somehow, it has come to that.

Those of us who are over 60, remember when living in a small community meant we only read about such things in far away cities.  Violence in small towns was something rare.

Today, we read or hear about it almost every week and the incidents are close to home.  There have been eight other incidents over the past 10 months in which law enforcement officers have been killed or wounded by gunfire within or just beyond Minnesota’s borders, including Pope County.

So we will probably learn more about the horror that unfolded in Burnsville.  And we’ll learn more about some of the lives forever changed — those of the shattered families and friends of the officers and paramadic.  And will hear more about the shooter.

Will any of it make sense?

Not really to those of us who live under the small-town veil of illusion.   

Still all of us have to ask the tough questions and seek answers so that we can better understand how to prevent such tragedy in the future.