Deputy Sheriff Adam William Klutz

I'm sorry for all the things in life you were cheated out of experiencing. The vast majority of your life was spent preparing you for a future you were denied. I commend you for what you did accomplish in 25 short years. 14 years ago tonight - in some ways it seems like a hundred years, and in other ways, it seems like just last week.

Tonight, I'll stand out on my back deck and think of you again. I'll feel how the night air felt that night. I'll think of how you kept the faith that night, responding to perhaps the most basic premise for our profession's existence: someone was afraid that night, someone was distraught and didn't know who or where to turn, but they knew that dialing 911 would bring someone to help...and it brought you. I'll think of your fellow officers who set aside their own safety in order to bring you out, and in so doing, raised the bar for the rest of us in defining what we expect from us. I'll think of the EMS workers who knew the cause was lost - but worked on you anyway. They reminded us that while police and EMS - and fire - may ride in different boats, we all three weather the same turbulent seas together.

And, I'll think how another year has passed and will wonder had that terrible night gone differently, how would your life be today? But then, as I always try to do, I will endeavor to get past "what might have been" and instead be grateful for what was, and the life you lived and contributions you made in those 25 years, and within that, remind myself how YOU raised the bar for the rest of us.

NC Officer

September 19, 2022