A Dallas police officer and his K9 partner are recovering from Friday's shooting in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood, but other officers say they will keep responding to calls despite several high profile cases of violence in Texas and Oklahoma.
In addition to the shooting in Dallas Friday, five people were shot and killed in Cleveland, Texas; seven people were found dead on a property in Henryetta, Oklahoma Monday.
Dallas Police Senior Corporal Scott Jay and his K9 partner, Figor, were among officers searching for the suspect in a shooting in Pleasant Grove. Police say the suspect, Bryan Casillas, had shot and injured two family members after they confronted him over loud music.
When officers found Casillas, Chief Eddie Garcia says Casillas shot Figor in the chest and then shot Jay twice: once in the leg and once in the chest.
"I think [the public] is seeing the seriousness of this profession, the seriousness of these violent criminals," says Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata. "This is what officers are engaged in every single day when they walk up to that car in a normal, everyday traffic stop that might very quickly turn not normal or, even worse, the most dangerous call is that family violence call."
The first officers responding to the case in Pleasant Grove were called for family violence. Police say Casillas had shot and injured two family members after they confronted him over loud music.
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"When all of us heard another officer was shot, every single one of us reminds ourselves it could have been us," Mata says.
But even as police are thinking about an officer who was injured, Mata says they will continue responding to other emergencies.
"Those 911 calls keep coming, so those officers have to respond to those calls," he says. "In the back of their head, they don't know how their friend is doing."
Mata says every officer leaves for work each day not knowing if they will return home. He says family members have those same concerns.
"That's why it's called a 'calling' to do this job. Not everybody can be a police officer," he says.
Jay returned fire, killing Casillas. Garcia says this was the third officer-involved shooting in Dallas this year.
Garcia says Jay is walking with a limp and will need about six weeks to recover.
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