One officer killed and four hurt in what police are calling an ambush-style shooting in Colorado.
"It's a sad day for law enforcement, we lost an officer,” said Knox County Sheriff's Office Capt. Greg Faulkner.
Our partners at KUSA report the shooter lured officers to his home with a disturbance call.
That scenario is the nightmare situation facing officers responding to domestic situations.
"A domestic violence call is the most dangerous call we can answer there are so many variables that these officers are going into,” explained Faulkner.
Here in Knox County, the number of domestic calls is rising.
"We respond to these calls all the time, our numbers show last year we're around 5,500 calls for the year. That's a lot of calls we're going to responding and handling,” said Faulkner.
In 2017, Knox County recorded at least one domestic violence call every day. A handful of days were in single digits, but many were between one and two dozen.
The most calls in one day was 36 - which happened on the same day as the UT football game against Florida. The second most domestic violence calls came on Christmas Eve when there were 28.
"Any event or holiday when families have the opportunity to gather or get together that's going to increase the opportunity for domestic violence,” Faulkner said.
Faulkner said there is a typically a rise surrounding the holidays, but not on the days themselves.
With an average of 30 officers on a shift, these calls demand a lot of resources.
“It's not a quick call you go to and come off of, sometimes domestic violence calls can last hours,” explained Faulkner.
Faulkner said, in a perfect world there would be no calls, but he believes more people are calling as awareness is spreading about domestic violence.
“People feel like there's somebody they can reach out to and call for help,” he said.
In addition to answering domestic violence calls, the family crisis unit works to provide resources to people involved in these cases. That means following up at the hospital if necessary and even going to court to support victims.