Alfred Sanyet-Perez, a 52-year-old father of eight and an agent with the Puerto Rico Police Department, was in a San German store Feb. 15 engaged in just such a perilous operation when things went sideways.

On a family trip to one of New Mexico's national forests, a 5-year-old Peter Herrera was told by his parents that he could pick one item in the gift shop.

When Michael Langsdorf joined the North County Police Cooperative in April after nearly two decades as an officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, it was a fresh new start. He was newly engaged and he'd with the department just a few months.

When many other little girls her age were putting on their mother’s heels and necklaces, Natalie Corona was pulling on her father’s police uniform.

Troy Chisum had been a volunteer firefighter. A paramedic. He was a member of the West Central Special Response Team. He'd serve as part of the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System's Weapons of Mass Destruction/Special Response Team. And, he served on the force in Fulton County, Illinois.

He was only 28 years old, but Nathan Hayden Heidelberg was already serving as a mentor -- and, at times, a father figure -- for others.

For Sacramento Police Officer Tara O’Sullivan, domestic violence calls were particularly important.

For more than 20 years, Susquehanna Police Sergeant Robert McCallister dutifully did his police work despite being in pain from a bullet lodged in spine after he was shot by a bank robber.

In early June, Corporal Jose Espericueta, Jr., known more commonly as “Speedy,” turned serious and asked his closest friends at the Mission Police Department to make him and one another a promise.

Kelvin Ansari’s children are hard-pressed to remember a time when their father was not in uniform.