Henderson County Deputy Ryan Hendrix, a Marine veteran and father of two, was responding to a break-in complaint early in the morning last Thursday. According to Sheriff Lowell Griffin, the suspect, Robert Ray Doss Jr., was found in his car at the scene and initially appeared to comply with the order to show his hands. "But in one rapid movement, he retrieved the gun, firing one round, striking [Hendrix] in the face and critically wounding him," the North Carolina sheriff at a press conference said.

The other two deputies returned fire and killed Doss, while Hendrix died of his wound.

This is how cops are confronted with deadly career criminals every day, and one second of hesitancy on their part can result in their deaths. As a nation, we count every cop shooting of a suspect when cops pull the trigger out of fear — justifiably or unjustifiably — but we have no tally of the number of cops who die every week from stifling the initial instinct to use force immediately.